It’s my last year in college, and I should be sipping on chardonnay while patting myself on the back for getting through four years with a degree and double minors. But guess what looms right outside the doorway to adult life? It’s not Death — no, it’s the Japanese shukatsu (job hunting) system.

You’ve seen the suit-clad young men and women all dressed sharply from head to toe, stampeding across stations and hallways heading for job briefings and interviews. This particular herd consists mostly of senior year college students, in the middle of their courting ritual with companies, called shukatsu.

Here’s an animated video to catch a glimpse of what scrambling through shukatsu looks like:

The September Dilemma

As a Japanese citizen ping-ponging between Japan and the US over the past 21 years, shukatsu is my worst nightmare. Too many reasons for this come to mind, but the biggest obstacle is my September entrance into a Japanese university.

Entering college in September means graduating in September, on time. But career paths are narrowed as students must choose from the following: a path to grad school; a six-month gap year to compete with Japanese recruits next spring; or start shukatsu half a year earlier to start working right after graduation. The second and third choices seem feasible, but how can one survive financially during a gap year? The inconvenience and frustration caused by shukatsu are especially stressful for exchange students who don’t speak Japanese. (Obtaining a work VISA is a whole ‘nother story.) Students who attended my school came to Japan after finding out they were able to attend all classes in English — so their Japanese language skills aren’t always perfect. The dwindling Japanese population doesn’t help the recruitment situation, either.

The root problem of shukatsu is how strongly it shapes Japan’s corporate calendar. While the country’s roughly ¥600 trillion ($3.87 trillion) economy isn’t built entirely on pre-graduation hiring, many firms still organize recruitment and training cycles around the April intake of new graduates.

How Shukatsu Took Root

To give a brief historical explanation of shukatsu, the recruitment system is said to have started during the Taisho era, when the First World War catalysed economic growth in Japan. As university graduates were scarce at the time, companies created their own schools within the company for long-term training of high school graduates who showed promising talent or potential. This stuck as a tradition and continues today. After the economy took off during the post-WWII era, companies and students alike rushed to search for their perfect match starting in Freshman year at the earliest.

Signs of Change — and Remaining Barriers

Today, students graduate in March and enter the workforce in April; these students are quite literally called “new graduates.” Although there have been some recent changes in larger Japanese companies, students who graduate outside the March cycle may need to apply through alternative hiring tracks, depending on the company. While many firms now accommodate September graduates within their new-graduate recruitment windows, others still categorize off-cycle applicants differently.

To minimize the cost of training new hires and reap maximum profit, Japanese companies have historically been reluctant to increase new recruits outside of the April window. However, year-round and mid-career recruitment have expanded in recent years.

If Japanese society does not change its recruitment system, attracting and retaining “global jinzai” (global talent) will remain a challenge. Although hiring has become more flexible in recent years, the traditional shukatsu cycle can still discourage international students and September graduates from entering the workforce. If Japan really wants to globalize, it’s time to shake off the shukatsu and embrace a new system.

Learn more about today’s work culture. Check out these articles:

Millennial and Gen Z Work Culture in Japan

Are Japanese Men Afraid of Independent Women?

This article was originally written by Lisa Shingo on November 4, 2017 and updated by the Metropolis team on February 15, 2026.