With their strong tradition of lifetime employment, large Japanese companies rarely fire regular employees. Therefore, hiring new graduates has been an important practice for these companies. Usually Japanese college students have already decided where they will work long before graduation. They start seeking jobs over a year before graduation; participate in job seminars held by companies and visit alumni from the same college who work at the company they are targeting. These former students are considered their “senpai” or seniors. On the other side, companies assign employees who have recently graduated from college as recruiters and have them invite talented students from their own college, their “kohai,” to apply. These early hiring activities are called “aota gai” (buying a green rice paddy). To prevent early hiring from getting out of hand, in 1952 the government introduced the Employment Agreement which sets the starting dates for visiting companies, selecting candidates, and offering positions. However, many companies secretly started the hiring process earlier. It was not unusual for a company to make an informal job offer earlier than the specified job offer date. With the changing economy and globalization the Employment Agreement was abolished in1997. Recently, following Western companies, some Japanese companies have introduced the internship system to diversify Japanese hiring practices.