Despite sending his resume to more than 15 companies, Bryan Cheng, a Taiwanese graduate student at Waseda University in Tokyo, hasn't received any positive replies.
"I've been rejected by two, am in the process of having an interview with one, and haven't even heard from the rest," Cheng, 26, said wryly, adding he plans on returning home to Taiwan if he doesn't land a job by June. "I want to stay in Japan, but I'll be wasting my parents' money if I remain here any longer."
Cheng, who graduates in March, is not the only foreign student having difficulty starting a career in Japan. While the record-low job offers for Japanese university graduates has made headlines, the international student community has its own struggles, including the language barrier and Japan's notoriously convoluted job-hunting process.