The job-recruiting process requires an overhaul if the government seriously hopes to ease the pressure on struggling students seeking work after they graduate, according to University of Tokyo professor Yuki Honda.
"This is a problem that has several issues intertwined at its core," Honda, who has authored several books on labor issues, told The Japan Times. And delaying the start of the recruiting process, as proposed by the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), is far from being a silver bullet, Honda stressed, adding that employers should ultimately end their customary practice of hiring only new graduates.
Honda explained that the traditional unified process, in which university students who graduate in March are cherry-picked by companies and begin working in April, had its merits in the past.