It is already March. On March 1, the ban of recruitment PR for college students and graduate students expected to graduate next spring was lifted. In the midst of labor shortage, companies that are hiring ahead of schedule unbound by the ban rule are increasing, and new graduate hiring rules seem to be becoming obsolete.
According to Recruit Co., Ltd., the job offer rate for 2017 graduate was 2.9% as of February, and the job offer rate for 2024 graduate increased to 19.9%. It seems to be pretty much a seller’s market, where companies’ willingness to hire is greater, this year. Incidentally, there seem to be a lot of voices saying that they use benefits as a criterion for selecting companies recently such as many holidays, less overtime, thorough leaving work on time, establishment of maternity leave system and so on. The company side has also put it up in its PR.
However, I think what is really important is “what kind of work you want to do” from now on. But I was also worried because I did not know that when I was looking for a job about 60 years ago from now. Being broadly classified, there was manufacturing, finance, trading company, transportation where the term logistics was not common at that time, or government official.
I think that almost all my friends around me decided their jobs with the advice of seniors and teachers without any firm thought. Looking back, of course it is up to you to decide in the end, but your life absolutely depends on invisible strings, for example such “chance” or “encounter”.
And nobody knows what the star industry or the strong company will be like 30~40 years from now, when you are in the prime time of your working life. The industry has its ups and downs and there are tectonic fluctuations to that extent. Therefore, what kind of industry or company you work for, it is important to improve the ability to withstand and survive the changing times, in other words “resourcefulness or surviving power”, even from the time you go out into society.

■■This week was another week full of thoughts.
■The number of births in 2022 was less than 800 thousand:
According to a prompt report of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of babies born last year was 799,728 decreased by 5.1% compared to the previous year, and less than 800 thousand for the first time since the beginning of the statistical data publication. Preliminary figures include foreigners living in Japan, and if limited to Japanese living in Japan, the number seems to be about 770 thousand. This figure is advanced 11 years compared to government future estimates. It is said that the declining birthrate has been a serious problem because the government had no measures. I think it is true, but what led to this situation is that younger generations are less interested in politics and to be specific, voter turnout in elections is low. The voter turnout in the Upper House election in July last year which was recent national election was 52% in total. You can’t say this level itself is high, but the problem is voter turnout by age group. 20s was 34%, 30s was 45%, 40s was 51%, 50s was 57%, 60s was 66% and over 70s was 56%. As you can see in this, voting behavior of those in their 40s and younger is lowering the overall average voter turnout. Politicians tend to tilt to so-called silver democracy, where it is easy to gain the support of the elderly and get votes, because this is the reality. I think the general public should be aware that their voices are reflected in national politics only by counting one vote at a time in an election and go vote more aggressively.
■Foreigners visiting Japan are on a recovery trend:
It has been five months soon since the government relaxed immigration restrictions. The number of inbound guests or foreigners visiting Japan in January recovered to about 1.5 million, just under 60% of 2019 before new coronavirus infection spread. It is expected to increase from China starting late from now on and to enter a period of recovery in earnest.
On the other hand, according to a nationwide survey, 78% of Japanese inns and hotels answered “lack of full-time employees” increased by nearly 90% compared to the same month a year earlier. 81% of Japanese inns and hotels answered lack of part time workers increased by 48% compared to the same month a year earlier, and it seems to be even more tense. Job advertisement is also increasing rapidly. This can be called an aftereffect where many workers have left hotels and tourism, due to repeated behavioral restrictions in the corona disaster and suspension of acceptance of visitors to Japan. On top of that, productive age population (15-64) in Japan decreases more than 10% compared to the peak time (1995).
The number of foreigners visiting Japan in 2019 before new coronavirus infection was 31.88 million, and the consumption amount during their visit to Japan reached 4.8 trillion yen. However, 2020~2022 was practically down to zero. Like this, tourism is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, plague, war and conflict. It is a typical peace-time industry, and will be zero in an instant, if there is an incident. Moreover, reputational damage takes considerable time to recover. Tourism is a very important industry with a big ripple effect, but we fully understood that the risk was high in the corona disaster, if too dependent to it. Therefore, we place tourism in about one of the assortments, and it is necessary to promote industries that lead to expand and maintain employment.

≪P.S.≫ It is sad what underlying strength and pride as “a manufacturing nation” which Japan has been a signboard happened. For example, successive rocket launch failure, setback of passenger aircraft development spent one trillion-yen, new coronavirus vaccine development failure, being slow to start in the DX and AI area, successive railway operation trouble and so on. Even “a rogue nation” near Japan, much less economically powerful than Japan, is launching space rockets, which are intercontinental ballistic missiles, one after another. Under international surveillance, failures are rarely heard of.
It can’t be discussed in a general way because each situation is different, but the situation that Japan’s technological capabilities are actually weakened has to be admitted.
I would like to discuss this eventually. The only way for Japan, no resources country, to find a way is to hone its technological development capabilities, but the current situation is extremely serious. The public and private sectors have to think seriously how to rebuild Japan’s posture.