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Employment
  1. Group Employment Trips
  2. Spring Employment Season
  3. Hiring New Graduates
  4. Hiring New High School Graduates
  5. The Japanese Employment System
  6. Lifetime Employment
  7. The Seniority Wage System (nenkō joretsu)
  8. The Bonus System
  9. Enterprise Unions in Japan
  10. Enterprise Union Cooperation
  11. Unemployment Insurance
  12. Dual Tracks in Female Occupations: Ippan Shoku (Non-Career Track) and Sōgō Shoku (Career Track)
  13. Increase of Female Employees
  14. Female dominant occupations
  15. Post-Retirement Employment and Social Security
  16. Marriage Retirement and Retirement Ages for Men and Women
  17. Relations between Large and Small Companies
  18. Part-time Female Workers
  19. What Kinds of Work Do People Do in Japan?
  20. Freeter/ Furita: Part-Time Workers in Japan
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Applicants sitting in room, listening to speakers
Job applicants listen attentively at an employment seminar. Photo from 1994.
Photo from Mainichi Shimbun.
Spring Employment Season
Large companies in Japan generally hire new employees who have just completed their schooling for regular employee positions. Their employment begins in April, and they usually undertake a period of company training before they begin work. Up until the mid-1990s, young men who were hired by large companies could expect to stay with the same firm for their entire career. This was true both for those hired for manufacturing jobs after graduating from high school or technical school, and those hired for white collar “salaryman” positions, usually after completing college. Prior to passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, women hired into large companies directly from school could expect to remain with their employer until they left work to raise a family.Persons who do not obtain regular employment right out of school in Japan, or who lose their jobs, fall into a secondary labor market and have little hope of obtaining the prized regular, permanent positions in large companies.
Special Terms: Equal Employment Opportunity Law for Men and Women

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