Record 11,000 foreign students land jobs in Japan

A record 11,040 foreign students found jobs in Japan in 2008 after graduating from universities and other schools here, up 7.6 percent from the previous year, the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau said Tuesday. It was the sixth increase in as many years.
Asian students accounted for 96.6 percent of the successful job applicants. By nation, 7,651 came from China, 1,360 from South Korea, 303 from Taiwan, 189 from Vietnam and 164 from Bangladesh, according to the bureau.
It obtained the data by tallying the number of students who applied for changes in visa status, which is mandatory for employment.
The most common jobs were in translation and interpretation, engaged in by 33।7 percent of the former students, followed by sales at 16.2 percent and information processing at 11.2 percent.
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