Fewer Firms Hire Foreign Exchange Students

TOKYO (Nikkei)--The percentage of companies that hired foreign exchange students studying in Japan during a drive to recruit students for spring 2013 employment fell 1.7 percentage points on the year to 19.2%, according to a report compiled Tuesday by Recruit Career Co.

The report also shows that 5.4% of firms added foreign students from overseas universities, down 0.8 point, and 10.7% recruited Japanese students studying abroad, down 0.5 point.

The recruitment period for spring 2013 new hires shrank by two months due to charter revisions by the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren. Companies focused on hiring domestic students due to time constraints and faced the problem of foreign personnel leaving after their assignments, said Hitomi Okazaki, editor in chief of the Recruit Career-operated Rikunabi website. Companies are redesigning their policies on how to best use foreign personnel, she added.

Meanwhile, 29.6% of companies offered information sessions on the Internet, up 1.4 percentage points. These Web seminars were held by 44.1% of companies with at least 5,000 employees.

(The Nikkei, March 13 morning edition)

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