Japanese graduates are hired for potential, not for a job, so the company has to teach them how to work. New employee training starts in the first week of April, straight after the entrance ceremony. It usually covers business manners, keigo, telephone and email etiquette, the company's history and products, compliance, and the habits of reporting and consulting that Japanese workplaces expect. Large manufacturers add factory placements; banks and trading houses add months of classroom work and rotations. The programme can run from a few days at a small company to three months or more at a large one.
Only after training are most new hires assigned. The cohort does not know in April which department or city they will end up in, which is a well-known source of anxiety and, when the assignment disappoints, of early resignations. The labour ministry's figures put the share of university graduates who left their first employer within three years at 33.8% for the March 2022 cohort.
Training also continues. Follow-up sessions after six months or a year, and a formal mentor from the year above, are common.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Graduates arrive expecting to be taught. A Japanese new graduate does not expect to be productive in week one. A foreign subsidiary that offers only online modules should explain the difference, or build a proper programme with peers.
- Your mid-career hires went through this. A candidate from a large Japanese company was shaped by months of shared induction and the network it created. That is part of what they leave behind.
- Early leavers are a pool. People who leave within three years are recruited as second-new-graduates, with training already done and expectations still flexible.
- Say where they will work. Telling graduates their role and location at offer stage is a real advantage against companies that still assign after training.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, turnover of new graduates (March 2022 graduates, published October 2025).