The New-Graduate (Shinsotsu) Hiring Cycle

Shinsotsu hiring is Japan's once-a-year system for recruiting university students into permanent jobs while they are still enrolled.¹² Students who wait until after graduation to start looking usually discover the main selection window has already closed.³

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Cabinet Secretariat's recruitment-activity schedule page and the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO).

Overview

Japan hires its new graduates in bulk through 新卒採用 (shinsotsu saiyō, "new-graduate hiring").² Companies recruit students who are expected to graduate the following academic year, still enrolled, rather than filling individual vacancies as they open.¹

Positions filled this way are normally 正社員 (seishain, "regular employee") roles with full membership-type employment.² International students at Japanese institutions compete for them under the same quotas and procedures as domestic students.¹

International students compete under the same hiring rules

Japanese companies recruit international students using the same quotas and processes as Japanese students, at both domestic and foreign-affiliated firms. There is no separate foreigner track to fall back on inside this system.¹

The Recruiting-Season Timeline

One national schedule governs the season. Since Keidanren withdrew its selection guideline (announced in 2018, with no guidance for the class graduating in 2021 or later), the government sets the rhythm each year through an inter-ministerial conference and issues a formal request to employer groups, which Keidanren relays to its members.⁴⁵

For the cohort graduating in March 2027, the published rule sets company information activity from March 1, selection activity from June 1, and formal offers from October 1, ahead of an April 1 start the following year (as of 2026-03; confirm current dates with the Cabinet Secretariat).⁴⁵ JASSO describes the same overall shape: hunting starts March 1 for students in the year before their final year, with the main season running about four months into mid-June and preparation often beginning up to five months earlier.³

Phase	Window	What happens	Source
Information	March through May	Entry registration plus company sessions and joint fairs	3
Application and testing	March through June	Entry sheets, aptitude and written tests	3
Selection	June onward	Interviews, then informal then formal offers	3
Start	April 1	Whole cohort enters together	1

The following chart shows how the cohort moves through the season toward the shared start date.⁴³

Information sessions in spring

Entry means requesting company materials and recruiting information through job-information sites or company websites.³ Soon after the season opens, company-only briefings (会社説明会, kaisha setsumeikai, "company information sessions") and multi-company consolidated fairs multiply.³²

Selection in summer and informal offers by autumn

Entry sheets go in between March and June, and aptitude and written tests run in the same window.³ Interviews begin in June or later, commonly three rounds with staff at various levels checking personality and way of thinking.³

After final selection, the candidate first receives 内々定 (nai-naitei, "informal pre-offer notice"), often by phone, followed by a written acceptance document.³ The official 内定 (naitei, "informal job offer") follows in October.³ Some companies hold a 内定式 (naitei-shiki, "offer ceremony") for the candidates who passed.²

The April start

Japanese universities and specialized training colleges enroll in April and graduate in March, so March graduates enter companies on April 1.¹ The naitei guarantees hiring at that April start, which coincides with the start of Japan's fiscal year.²

How Selection Works

Selection runs as a funnel of entry sheet, aptitude tests, group discussion at some firms, and multiple interview rounds, as the chart below summarizes.³²

Entry sheets and aptitude tests

The エントリーシート (entorī shīto, "entry sheet") is the first formal step and doubles as a paper screening.² It covers personal details, education, and certifications, plus a self-promotion statement (自己PR, jiko PR, "self-promotion") and a statement of motivation for joining that company (志望動機, shibō dōki, "application motive").² Foreign graduates are sometimes asked why they want to work in Japan.²

Sheets typically carry a professional photograph of the applicant in a suit.² With applicant volumes this large, most candidates do not survive this stage, so each sheet needs to argue the candidate's potential contribution on its own.²

Aptitude tests (適性検査, tekisei kensa, "aptitude tests"), most commonly the SPI, follow for those who pass.² They test verbal and nonverbal skills such as Japanese, reading comprehension, logic, and math, plus a personality section measuring fit with company culture.² Some employers add an essay component testing critical thinking and information-gathering ability.²

Interviews and group stages

Group discussions put four to six candidates before one supervising interviewer, with roles such as moderator or presenter divided among the group.² The exercise tests teamwork and communication, since Japanese employers value cooperative decision-making over individual dominance.²

One-on-one interviews then proceed in stages. The first is a short screening of around 20 minutes on personality and motivation, the second goes deeper into motivation and cultural fit, and the final round sits at executive level and tests commitment and long-term potential.²

Suit and Recruit-Photo Conventions

Candidates attend sessions and interviews in a dark リクルートスーツ (rikurūto sūtsu, "recruit suit").² For men that means a tie with the suit; for women, dress pants or a knee-length skirt with skin-colored stockings; black shoes throughout.² Conformity is the point, and standing out through clothing works against the candidate.²

The Blank-Slate Hiring Logic

Japanese employers hire for potential rather than for ready-made skill. Accustomed to training hires after entry through on-the-job training and structured programs, they recruit students expected to contribute over the long run.¹

When Keidanren surveyed employers on what matters in new graduates, communication ability, independence, and cooperativeness outranked academic scores, field expertise, and foreign-language ability.¹ This is potentiality hiring: valuing capacity for future success over the ability to perform on day one.¹

The employment form behind it is membership-type employment, which specifies no job category, workplace, or hours at hire and evaluates the ability to serve as a generalist.¹ Candidates apply to the company without knowing their exact role and are placed in departments after joining, including on the 総合職 (sōgō-shoku, "main career track") generalist path.¹²

Foreign Graduates on the Shinsotsu Track

An international student who finds work in Japan must change status of residence from Student to a work-permitting status before starting work.⁶ JASSO places that status change after the naitei in the season sequence, so the paperwork follows the offer rather than preceding it.³

In 2022, about 86% of international students granted a status change received Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services (as of 2022; confirm current shares with the Immigration Services Agency).⁶ That status requires a university degree in a subject relevant to the duties, a qualifying Japanese specialized-training-college program, or ten-plus years of relevant experience, plus pay at or above the level of a Japanese national in the same role.⁶

Start the status-change paperwork as soon as you accept an offer

The offer is only half the track for a foreign graduate. The status change must complete before the April start, and processing delays can disrupt onboarding, so treat the post-naitei paperwork as part of the season itself.³⁶

Graduates of four-year Japanese universities or Japanese graduate schools with JLPT N1 or a Business Japanese Test score of 480-plus may instead work across a wide range of industries, including service and retail roles with a bridge or interpretation element, under Designated Activities Notification No. 46 (as of 2026-09).⁶ Purely manual tasks alone, such as only washing dishes or only cleaning rooms, do not qualify under that status.⁶

The practical barrier on this track is language. Most aptitude tests and interviews run in Japanese at business to near-native level, though some international firms conduct shinsotsu selection in English.²

If You Miss Shinsotsu: Mid-Career Hiring

Large-company shinsotsu programs aim primarily at enrolled students, though some employers also consider past graduates (既卒, kisotsu, "past graduates") or recent graduates (第二新卒, daini shinsotsu, "second new graduates").² Once out of that window, the alternative is experience-based mid-career hiring (中途採用, chūto saiyō, "mid-career hiring"), which recruits workers with prior experience rather than enrolled students.²

The cohort numbers show how much of each class converts the season into offers. For students graduating in March 2026, the university naitei rate stood at 73.4% as of October 1, up 0.5 points year on year (as of 2025-10-01; confirm current figures with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).⁷ The same joint survey covers junior colleges, technical colleges, and specialized training colleges.⁷

Good to know

Starting after the main selection window has run

The season runs once a year, and JASSO states the consequence plainly: miss the hiring season and finding a job becomes difficult.³ Some companies still recruit after October, so students without offers can keep hunting, but they are picking through remaining openings rather than riding the main wave.³

The naitei is informal, not the contract itself

A naitei guarantees an April start but does not bind the candidate to the company.² Holders of multiple offers may decline by phone without giving reasons.² Accepting means returning a written pledge or acknowledgement by the deadline, which itself is not the formal employment contract.²

Missing the April start means waiting or switching tracks

September graduates face the same April rhythm: JASSO notes their start date may be April of the year following graduation.³ And while the government schedule sets the national earliest dates, each employer runs its own selection calendar inside that window, so confirm per-company dates instead of assuming every firm moves on the same day.⁴³

See also

• How the Japanese Labor Market Works
• Seishain, Keiyaku, Haken, and Arubaito: Japan's Employment Categories
• Reading a Japanese Employment Contract
• Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa
• Tenshoku Procedure: The Job-Change Sequence
• Designated Activities Visa

References

Footnotes

1. JASSO / Study in Japan Official Website. "Chapter 2. Job Hunting in Japan." https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/work-in-japan/employment/recruitment.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Coto Japanese Institute Staff Writer. "What New Graduate Hiring Process in Japan Looks Like: Shukatsu." Published 2026-04-14. https://cotoinstitute.com/japan-new-graduate-hiring-process ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸

3. JASSO / Study in Japan Official Website. "Chapter 3. Job Hunting Schedule." https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/work-in-japan/employment/schedule.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

4. 内閣官房 (Cabinet Secretariat). 「新卒者の就職・採用活動に関する要請」. https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/shushoku_katsudou_yousei/index.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. 一般社団法人日本経済団体連合会 (Keidanren). 「2027（令和9）年度卒業・修了予定者等の就職・採用活動に関する要請等について」. Published 2026-03-27. https://www.keidanren.or.jp/announce/2026/0327b.html ↩ ↩²

6. JASSO / Study in Japan Official Website. "Chapter 5. Status of Residence." https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/work-in-japan/employment/status.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. 厚生労働省 (MHLW). 「令和８年３月大学等卒業予定者の就職内定状況（10月１日現在）を公表します」. Published 2025-11-14. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/0000184815_00057.html ↩ ↩²