What Does Recent Japanese Career Starters Indicate?

Osaka – Sunday, April 4, 2010

Companies/organizations and schools started a new year in Japan from April 1. On this day, new graduates start their career by attending the ceremony, which is often broadcasted on TV news and reported in newspapers. Such news and reports are “mirror” of current Japanese society and business environment.

1. What is the typical company orientation ceremony that the new graduates attend on the first day?

All companies and organization hold company orientation ceremony to welcome freshman (new graduates). This is held on April 1 excluding a few exceptional companies that hold late March. This is usually a full-day formal ceremony with speeches from the top management (CEO/President etc.) and other executives, address by a representative of the freshmen in reply at the ceremony, and official notice that the freshmen have now joined the company. Some companies also have other sessions such as short education and deployment on this day, although many companies do such things later.

Unlike other years, only 75% of students who graduated in March were successful in job hunting and could attend the ceremony on April 1, with recent job market. The remaining 25% either went to job assistance centre instead, or go to university because they had intentionally failed to earn necessary credits to avoid graduation.

2. What was the trend of the ceremony this year? What was the core message from the top management to their freshmen?

Core message from the top executives delivered at the ceremony was mostly “you are to proactively take part in the company turnaround”.

Companies often reported of their ceremony in many media were Toyota, JAL and JR, all of which are going through turnaround and/or recovery of their reputation.

1) Toyota

Toyota is now making upmost efforts in order to recover its reputation and brand by reviewing and re-establishing quality management, after the worldwide recalls that started in February this year, mentioned in the previous article Toyota's Additional Recall of Prius. Message from President Akio Toyoda of Toyota to his freshmen was “quality is our first priority and you will join us to recover our global reputation and brand by Quality Culture”.

2) JAL (Japan Air Lines)

JAL has just started its turnaround under the Japanese government as mentioned in the previous article Can JAL Succeed In Turnaround? Message from CEO Mr. Kazuo Inamori to his freshmen was “it is your generation that is to be the key players of the turnaround”.

3) JR-West (West Japan Railway Company)

JR, that was privatized more than 25 years ago, has been improving their reputation after the derailment accident in Osaka 5 years ago in which 106 people died and more than 500 people injured. The train could not make a sufficient curve because the driver did not speed down sufficiently in order to be punctual to the time schedule. Many views from experts on root cause of the accident (background, personnel systems, company culture etc.) were exchanged proactively at that time and the company had been advocating how they have reviewed risk management and now prioritizing safety. Message of President Mr. Takayuki Sasaki to his freshmen was “Let’s continue improving the reputation together”.

4) Others (e.g. Panasonic, McDonald)

Ceremony of Panasonic used to be often introduced by media but this year only in a newspaper. Panasonic is one of a typical Japanese company that had negative impact of the worldwide economy crisis but the is recovering its financial performance as mentioned in the previous article Financial Improvement in Japanese Listed Companies, CEO/President Mr. Ohtsubo’s message to his freshmen was “become a professional person who is competitive in the global business environment”.

McDonald has been enjoying high performance, being one of the few “winners” with Fast Retailing (famous for UniQlo brand). Their ceremony was unique. It was extravagant, party style held in a hotel with luxurious lunch. Another example of a unique ceremony was also of entertainment, in which freshmen did their own performance.

3. What comes ahead of the freshmen after the ceremony?

Usually education and training awaits the freshmen. Although mid and small companies might have little education hosted by their HQ, many typical Japanese companies has one or two education hosted by their HQ, consisting of lectures and workshops. Then freshmen are usually deployed and either start working and educated OJT or has further training.

1) Typical training of Japanese manufacturers

Probably the typical Japanese style training is of manufacturing companies of electronics and automobiles. After education hosted by HQ, freshmen will have training at manufacturing and sales shop floor for months. The objective is to learn the basics and meaning of manufacturers (production and sales) from live experience. For most freshmen who have degrees or masters in sciences or arts, this is the only time in their career to have such an experience.

2) In the case of the author

In the case of the author, who started her career at Panasonic, she had two weeks education hosted by HQ in a class of 34 members, consisted of lectures and workshops to learn company overview and culture, and basics of working as a member of a company/organization. At the end of the two weeks education, she was told which affiliate/division she will start her career in and be educated and trained for it, which was AV Division (which happened to be AV Division later headed by Mr. Ohtsubo, the current CEO/President).

She then had education and training for another two weeks hosted by HR of the Division, which was a kind of intern at Overseas Business Department of AV Division (which happened to be her second workplace). She then had six weeks training at a manufacturing shop floor (inspection and shipping tasks) of video systems making video equipments used for professionals at broadcasting workplace. Then she worked as an intern at a “National Shop” near her house, a retailer under Panasonic’s umbrella, for another six weeks, before she started working as a marketer for Japan domestic market in August after the summer holiday.

3) Same concept applied to companies of other industries

Although the duration of each education and training depends on the company, the objective and overall process of education and training process are the same for most Japanese manufacturing companies, at least for electronics and automobiles, according to information sharing with her friends from university.

Concept of training of shop floor experience is applied to companies of other industries as well. For example, in the case of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), a leading and public TV broadcasting company, freshmen including the author’s friend from university who started her career as a bilingual reporter and changed her career as an announcer, accompanied salesmen to collect viewing fees from the public, visiting one house at the time. In the case of NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph), a telecommunication giant that was privatized about 15 years ago, freshmen including the author’s brother, who always been working in HQ　such as international law, BPA (Business Planning and Analysis) and business development, visited users of telecommunication including household industry factories.

4. What is required to be considered in educating and developing freshmen who joined the company on April 1, 2010?

The companies need to plan and implement mid/long term education and development meeting needs and uniqueness of each individual. This is a universal issue but is especially an important point to be considered for fresh starters for this year. This is because according to an expert, this year’s freshmen can be described as “order-made” (experts always are asked to describe freshmen of that particular year, which is introduced by media).

The background of this seems to attribute to the fact that they are brought up by “yutori-kyouiku”, literally “education without cramming”, that have encouraged them to think and act differently from others. For this reason, it is unlikely that one-fits-for-all education and training will not work for this year’s freshmen and HR managers are required to tailor education and training to meet needs and uniqueness of each individual, which is a challenge but necessary to retain talents and unleash their potential, which are vital for competitiveness and sustainability of the company.