For Japanese Students, Boring Careers Are Looking Pretty Good

Heading en masse to new positions in Japan's major corporations, fresh university graduates in black suits have become as common a sight in Tokyo as April's cherry blossoms. But this year, things are different. According to a closely watched annual survey, the companies that were once synonymous with Japan Inc. — Toyota, Sony, Sharp and Canon — have lost their luster as potential employers. For those seeking secure jobs-for-life, students are instead looking to relatively low-risk industries such as railroads and public utilities.

The survey, a poll of nearly 6,000 university seniors conducted by Recruit Co., a Tokyo-based research and human resources company, revealed that Japan's flailing, export-driven economy has had a profound impact on the outlook of those on the brink of entering the workforce. Toyota's ranking as a preferred employer plummeted from 6th place last year to 96th place this year. Sony fell from 8th to 29th place; Sharp from 14th to 55th place; Canon from 20th to 77th place.

And which companies are the top five dream employers? Central Japan Railway and East Japan Railway Co. rose to first and second place (up from 4th and 9th place last year). Japan Post — formerly the public office that the government began to privatize in 2007 — jumped 357 spots to rank 30th. Chubu Electric Power and Kansai Electric Power both gained more than 50 places each to rank in the top 50.

It's not surprising that automakers and electronic companies are no longer as appealing as they once were. Toyota Motor, which has typically ranked in the survey's top 10, will likely post its second straight operating loss in its 2010 fiscal year — right when the students polled by Recruit will be entering the workplace. The company is expected to report a loss of $4.9 billion when it announces its 2009 results on May 8. Last week, Sharp Corp., too, slashed its outlook for its fiscal year ending March 31, to a net loss of $1.29 billion. (Read "Sony's Woes: Japan's Iconic Brands Under Fire.")

Recruit collected the data between Jan. 30 and Feb. 16, as a series of dire economic indicators painted a dismal economic outlook for Japan and major companies were laying off workers in waves. "News reports about worsened business and manpower conditions came out one after another," says Recruit spokeswoman Yuri Ito. "This survey is done around the time companies announce their recruitment plan for the following year. So some students might vote for those that plan to hire aggressively." Export-driven companies, out. Instead, "Students consider companies in industries like infrastructure and food, which are robust in a recession... companies that are stable and don't go away," says Ito. "Their parents think the same."

Grad students in engineering fields, of whom 1,860 were polled, still chose Panasonic as their ideal employer (followed by Sony), but automotive-related companies dropped in rank, and household products (including cosmetics) and pharmaceutical companies grew in popularity. The largest gains were seen by cosmetics companies Kao and Kose, food company Meiji, and three pharmaceutical companies: Shionogi & Co., Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., and Astellas.

Kevin Gibson, managing director of headhunting firm Robert Walters Japan, says he, too, is witnessing a flight to risk-free industries। "We see a gravitation away from banking and, oddly enough, manufacturing is perceived as insecure now," Gibson says. Robert Walters is placing a large number of executive and management talent into health care and the pharmaceutical industry. "It's getting fantastic people from I.T. and banking — people that [those industries] wouldn't normally be able to employ." But Gibson says the brain drain from old-guard companies may not last. "Media spent so much time beating up on these companies," he says. "They will bounce back."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1891139,00.html?xid=rss-world

Univ of Tokyo ranks 11th in global research paper citation frequency

TOKYO —

The University of Tokyo ranked 11th, up one notch from last year, among about 4,100 academic and research institutes worldwide in terms of how frequently its research papers were cited between January 1998 and last December, information company Thomson Reuters said Monday.

The University of Tokyo acquired the highest position since the company began releasing the global ranking in 2002. Among other institutions in Japan, Kyoto University ranked 30th on the list, Osaka University 34th and Tohoku University 64th.

Thomson Reuters said academic papers of such state-backed research institutions as the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Riken and the Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, as well as Tohoku University, Keio University and Okayama University became more frequently quoted in recent years.

In the field of materials science, Tohoku University ranked third in the worldwide ranking, followed by AIST at fourth. The University of Tokyo came in second in physics, and third in biology and biochemistry.

In the field of chemistry, Kyoto University ranked fourth, followed by the University of Tokyo at fifth।

http://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/univ-of-tokyo-ranks-11th-in-global-research-paper-citation-frequency

Foreign students finding jobs scarce

Foreign students seeking work in Japan after graduation are facing difficulties in finding jobs as employment conditions deteriorate because of the economic downturn.

More than 120,000 foreign students study in Japan annually. Observers say the government should support the students's job-hunting efforts to keep them from losing interest in Japan and returning to their home countries.

One foreign student looking for work is a 24-year-old graduate student from China's Jiangsu Province who lives in Akita. She is currently looking for full-time work at a Japanese firm for after she graduates. But the search is proving difficult.

"Since I began spending my time looking for work, my standard of living has been deteriorating day by day," she said.

With no financial support from her parents, she is living only on a scholarship and a part-time job to make ends meet. With graduation looming, she decided to quit her part-time job and focus on finding full-time work. By such methods as giving up her trips home to China, she has amassed 300,000 yen in savings. But she has found herself in a hard situation without her part-time income.

On March 8, she traveled halfway across the country to Tokyo, where she attended a job fair for foreign students held near JR Hamamatsucho Station in Minato Ward. Following the event, she stayed for a week with a friend living in the capital so she could call on companies in Tokyo, but she came away empty-handed, she said.

Savings wiped out, she can no longer afford to eat out, and is saving money by cooking and eating at home whenever possible.

"I've made it a habit to seek cheap foods at supermarkets. For example, I decided not to buy enoki mushrooms, whenever they cost more than 100 yen," she said.

The student buys boxed meals at supermarkets only after they become discounted at night and takes them to school the next day for lunch.

Still, she said she is not considering returning to China. "The competition is even more intense in China than here. There are fewer jobs to go around because of the economy. I want to work in Japan to utilize what I have learned in university and graduate school during my stay here," she said.

Similar difficulties have been experienced by a 31-year-old man from South Korea who now lives in Saitama Prefecture. After graduating from a private university here in 2007, he returned home and found employment. However, he returned to Japan after his wife decided to enter a Japanese graduate school, and he began searching for a job here this year. However, he has had no luck.

"There are far fewer companies hiring than there were before. I need to find a job as soon as possible to support my wife and me, but I haven't found a good place to work," he said.

According to the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), the number of foreign students studying in Japan at universities, graduate schools and junior colleges has been on the rise in recent years. As of May 1 last year, a record 123,829 foreign students were studying in Japan, up 5,331 from the previous year. About 60 percent of the foreign students came from China, followed by students from South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, according to JASSO.

Many students from Asia hope to work in Japan. However, only 10,262 students were able to obtain working visas in 2007 after finding jobs. Many students ended up returning to their home countries after failing to find work.

The employment situation for foreign students has gone from bad to worse due to the economic downturn. According to the Tokyo Employment Service Center for Foreigners--a job-placement office for foreign residents--there were 252 job listings targeting foreign students graduating in March available at the center as of Jan. 31, down 54 from the same period last year.

According to the organization, it is mainly small and medium-size companies that seek employees through the center. However, general manager Kazuo Hirasawa said companies across the spectrum are cutting the number of foreign students they hire.

The government has announced a plan to increase the number of foreign students studying in Japan to 300,000 by 2020 to enhance the country's international competitiveness by securing excellent human resources from around the world.

However, the government's measures to support foreign students finding jobs in Japan are limited, even though this is supposed to be an integral part of the government's plan. The government is now planning to host job fairs targeting foreign students and a meeting of universities and companies interested in recruiting foreign students.

But observers say the government measures are failing to keep up with rapidly deteriorating employment conditions.

Mitsuhiro Asada, chief editor of J-Life, a free magazine targeting foreign students published by ALC Press, Inc., said: "Foreign students are integral to the future of Japan. If the government really wants to increase the number of foreign students, it needs to focus its efforts on improving the status of foreign students after they graduate--including setting a target figure for the number of foreign students hired by Japanese companies."

Foreign students receiving more assistance in job hunt

When trying to get a job in Japan after completing their higher education here, foreign students often struggle with the nation's peculiar job-hunting procedures, under which students usually start such activities as early as the latter half of their junior year and submit "entry sheets" rather than resumes to prospective employers for the first round of screening.

Many job-hunting foreign students are uncertain about how to fill in these entry sheets or how they are expected to behave during interviews.

Therefore, some universities have been taking steps to help their foreign students find jobs.

For example, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), a private institution in Oita Prefecture whose foreign students accounts for 40 percent of the student body, regularly holds events called "Open Campus Recruiting," in which companies are invited to the campus to hold briefing sessions for foreign students and conduct recruitment tests.

During the 2007 academic year, there were about 380 sessions of the Open Campus Recruiting program.

On the other hand, Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo started to offer job-hunting support to its foreign students in October last year. The private institution has asked for help from temporary staffing agency Pasona Inc., which provides advice to these students regarding how to fill in application forms and how to behave during interviews.

In addition to these two examples, many other institutions now offer special job-hunting seminars for foreign students.

In recent years, some companies have been willing to hire more and more foreign students. Starting with new recruits for the 2008 fiscal year, Lawson Inc., for example, has been hiring foreign students under the same working conditions as their Japanese colleagues. For the fiscal year starting this month, the major convenience store chain has about 40 foreign recruits.

"We value diversity [in our workforce]," a Lawson official says of why the company has hired an increasing number of foreign students.

Diversity in the workplace is thought to encourage people to respect different values that come from differing nationality, gender and age. This is also said to enhance their creativity.

"If companies can provide foreign employees with comfortable working systems," says Masato Gunji, senior researcher at the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training, "it would become easier for them to hire other types of workers such as homemakers and the elderly."

(Apr. 9, 2009)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090409TDY14001.htm

Indian-affiliated institution opens international school in Yokohama

An educational institution affiliated with the Indian government opened an international school in Yokohama on Friday

The Yokohama school, operated by India International School in Japan, uses a closed municipal elementary school building leased by the city of Yokohama, which is encouraging more Indian companies to operate in the port city

In the 2009 academic year beginning in April, 13 kindergarten and three elementary school students will study at the Yokohama school

Classes, conducted in English, promote Indian-style education, particularly math education on which India is known to focus, such as mental arithmetic calculation involving double-digit figures

IISJ is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Indian government's Central Board of Secondary Education. About 350 students -- from kindergarten to senior high school students -- attend the international school it operates in Tokyo's Koto Ward.

IISJ plans to gradually increase the number of students at the newly opened Yokohama school to the size of the Tokyo school

About 10 Indian-affiliated companies, mostly IT-related firms, are operating in Yokohama, where about 1,300 Indian people reside, more than three times higher than from 10 years ago।
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97ANL3O0&show_article=1