The government's ban on job interviews and other hiring activities involving university students scheduled to graduate next spring was lifted Monday.
Many companies are conducing interviews online, instead of face to face, due to the spread of the new coronavirus, and there were no long lines of students in recruitment suits waiting at interview venues this year.
At Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, officials started online interviews from 9 a.m. Each applicant faced a smartphone camera, among other tools, and explained their reasons for applying. About 1,000 students were to be interviewed online on the day.
"I can evaluate people better than I expected in the online interviews," the manager of the personnel department said.
Many major companies had already started unofficial screening activities before the ban was lifted and have made informal job offers to students. According to a survey by job information company Recruit Career Co., as of May 1 the percentage of university students who had obtained informal job offers stood at 45.7% percent, down 5.7 percentage points from the same period last year.
Recruitment has been sluggish since April, partly because some companies suspended hiring activities due to the new coronavirus. However, hiring interest remains high mainly among major companies. With the government's lifting of the state of emergency, which was put in place to prevent the spread of the virus, the percentage of students with job offers is expected to gradually increase.
According to the government's non-binding recruitment rules, the ban on making informal job offers will be lifted on Oct. 1. Recruitment of students is expected to continue until autumn and winter, mainly among small and midsize companies.
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