What Foreign and Japanese Students Look For in a Japanese Company

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]J-Cast has an article (Japanese) comparing how overseas and local students assess a Japanese company as a potential employer. By far the most important consideration for foreigners is the future prospects of the firm with 61.4% selecting that option. That's also the top criterion for local students but at a much lower 44.2%. The next most important issue for foreigners, scoring a distant 28.7%, is the workplace environment. After that, questions of job description (23.9%) and welfare benefits (13.1%) tail off in importance for foreign job-seekers. Meanwhile, Japanese students place nearly equal weight on these other factors with 27.3% rating benefits a major consideration. Elsewhere, 59.1% of Japanese students say they hope to work for the same company until retirement which goes some way to explaining these choices. 34.2% of foreign students are ready to consider switching companies to get ahead in their careers while 24.2% hope to go into business for themselves in the future which makes 58.3% who aren't expecting to stay with their first employer. In another difference, the preferred employer for Japanese students is a major bank (32.8%). 63.5% of foreign humanities students, on the other hand, want to work at a major trading company while science students would take a blue chip electrical company, trading house or IT firm.