OB and OG are Japanese-English shorthand for "old boy" and "old girl", meaning alumni. During job hunting, students contact graduates of their university, club or seminar who now work at companies they want to join, and ask them about the work, the culture and the selection process. Contacts come through university career offices, club networks and, increasingly, matching apps that let students book visits with employees directly.
The visit is informal but not neutral. Some companies have used alumni as recruiters, passing impressions back to the hiring team, and students know this, so they treat the meeting as part of selection. The relationship also carries the senpai-kohai dynamic: the student is junior, often meeting a stranger outside office hours.
That imbalance has caused real harm. Several reported cases of employees assaulting students they met for visits, including a widely covered 2019 arrest of an employee at a major trading company, led companies to restrict visits to office premises and office hours, ban alcohol and bar very junior staff from taking them. A 2025 amendment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act extended employers' duty to prevent sexual harassment to job seekers and interns, from 1 October 2026. Guidance on the change lists alumni visits among the settings it covers.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Your staff are doing them whether you know or not. Graduates of Japanese universities in your Japan entity will be contacted by students. Set a written policy: where, when, who, and no alcohol.
- It is now a compliance item. The harassment-prevention duty covers job seekers, so train anyone who meets students, not only the recruiting team.
- Do not treat it as hidden selection without saying so. If visits feed into assessment, students should know. Secret screening damages trust when it comes out.
- The same instinct shapes senior hiring. Mid-career candidates also check a company through people they trust before they talk to a recruiter. What your current staff say about you matters more than your careers page.
Sources
- Equal Employment Opportunity Act, as amended in 2025 (duty to take measures against sexual harassment of job seekers, in force 1 October 2026).
- Reporting by Nikkei on the 2019 arrest and the employer's subsequent restrictions on alumni visits.