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November 21, 2025
 

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JOB HUNTING

Hinako Mori, 22, arranges products at a Don Quijote outlet in Tokyo in October. The Japanese retailer, which relaxed its rules concerning hair and nail polish three years ago, says nearly a quarter of its employees sport brightly colored hair.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 17, 2025
More Japanese firms relax rules in tussle for workers
The country's labor shortage has led companies to ease up on various aspects, such as hair and nail polish color, to secure enough part-timers.
According to the labor and education ministries, 73.4% of job-hunting university students expected to graduate in March 2026 secured informal job offers, up 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 14, 2025
More university students in Japan get job offers
The rise in informal job offers comes amid a continued labor shortage.
Job hunting and recruitment both may have become less active in September ahead of minimum wage hikes beginning in October.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2025
Japan's September job availability ratio stays unchanged
Job hunting and recruitment may have become less active in September ahead of minimum wage hikes in October, and some companies may have curbed hiring due to earnings drops.
A National Personnel Authority official has attributed a dip in the competition ratio for national public service applicants to "the number of successful applicants rising in line with an increase in the number of planned hires by each ministry and agency."
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 12, 2025
Japan marks lowest level of competition on record for civil service applicants
Women made up a record high of 47.1% of all successful applicants, up from 43.0% in the previous year.
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 2, 2025
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
Labor shortages and shifting mindsets are driving younger Japanese workers to challenge the country’s traditional office culture.
Members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces prepare to load boxes of medical relief supplies onto a helicopter in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in September last year.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 31, 2025
SDF ramps up campus outreach amid recruitment slump
Officials say the initiative is an effective way to foster a stronger connection between the public and the SDF.
The employment rate for March 2025 graduates of higher educational institutions stood at 98% as of April 1, the second highest on record, according to the data compiled jointly by the education and labor ministries.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2025
98% of new graduates in Japan are able to land jobs
The graduate employment rate is the second highest on record.
Students attend a job fair at Makuhari Messe in the city of Chiba on March 1.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2025
About 30% of major Japanese companies using AI for recruiting, poll says
The results show that companies are looking to AI to increase the efficiency of recruitment efforts as competition for human resources heats up.
Students at a job fair in Chiba. Companies have been racing to secure talent amid serious labor shortages by taking steps including raising starting salaries.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2025
Japanese firms start job fair for 2026 graduates
Companies have been racing to secure talent amid serious labor shortages by taking steps including raising starting salaries.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani ranked second in the list of ideal male bosses for the second straight year, according to a survey of people who are starting their careers this spring.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2025
Comedian Uchimura and announcer Miura remain ideal bosses, survey finds
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who achieved over 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases last season, ranked second in the male boss category.
Taxis in central Sendai. More people are becoming attracted to the job of a taxi driver as it can allow them to work flexibly.
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Feb 10, 2025
Cab driving becoming an increasingly popular job in Sendai
Flexible hours and the work-at-your-own-pace environment has led to a renewed interest in taxi driving among younger people.
The share of university students who accepted job offers as of Dec. 1 dipped 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier, the first decrease in four years.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2025
Share of university students in Japan who accepted job offers falls
It is the first decrease in four years, as some students who received job offers from several companies apparently hesitated to pick one.
Incumbent Mayor Shuhei Azuma announces the opening of applications for a possible successor at a news conference on Sept. 25.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 11, 2024
City in Osaka Prefecture looks for new mayor using job search site
The idea is to encourage more people to get involved in local government in Japan, but questions have emerged about the project and its implications.
Japan Airlines' entrance ceremony. As of Oct. 1, 72.9% of job-hunting students had received job offers, down 1.9 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a joint survey by the labor and education ministries.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 15, 2024
Share of graduating Japanese university students with job offers falls
The labor and education ministries attribute the 1.9-percentage-point drop to a seller's market in which students take time to consider multiple tentative offers.
Familiarizing yourself with different types of honorifics and formal verb structures will be crucial to successfully completing a job interview in Japanese.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 2, 2024
Get to know basic honorifics before you head into that Japanese job interview
Honorific language, or “keigo,” is something you’ll want to get a handle on before you head out to hunt for a job in Japan.
Get your dark blue suit out of the closet, job hunting season is once again upon us.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 6, 2024
Those looking for jobs in Japan get another shot at it in September
Hiring for new recruits usually takes place in time for an April start, but Japanese companies are increasingly looking to hire in the autumn.
One survey revealed that 68% of recruiters admit to appearance-based hiring and 96% say interviews are influenced by visual impressions, which is why many employment experts advise job hunters to invest significantly in their appearance.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 4, 2024
Why do I need a photo on my resume to apply for a job in Japan?
It is time to build a recruitment system in Japan that rewards people’s talents, irrespective of their looks
One in three workers say they want to return to companies they have worked for before, a survey has found.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2024
Many job changers in Japan consider returning to former employer, survey says
Reasons varied from shifts in personal circumstances after they quit their jobs, to a newfound appreciation for their former workplace after leaving.
A recruiter holding a placard advertising jobs talks to young men at an unofficial job market in the suburbs of Beijing.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Aug 21, 2024
China's rising youth unemployment breeds new working class
Millions of graduates are being pushed into a tough bargain, with some forced to accept low-paying work or even subsist on their parents' pensions.
The proportion of recent graduates in Japan who have worked as interns have experienced sexual harassment during their internship was 30.1%, according to a labor ministry survey, up 4.6 percentage points from the previous survey in fiscal 2020.
JAPAN / Society
May 18, 2024
Japan survey finds 30% of student interns experience sexual harassment
The proportion of such respondents was 30.1%, up 4.6 percentage points from the previous survey in fiscal 2020.
Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Beware of China’s strategic distortion of reality
China holds a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3. 
Yen rout brings talk of ¥160 to the dollar and possible intervention
The yen has been weak against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks, with some analysts expecting the retreat to continue.
China to reimpose ban on Japanese seafood imports amid row over Taiwan, reports say
A sign reading, "Suspend the sales of all fish products imported from Japan" is displayed in an area home to Japanese restaurants in Beijing in August 2023. China will reimpose a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, media reports in Tokyo said Wednesday, as a diplomatic spat between the two countries deepens.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
By Kathryn Wortley

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