Studying In Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun

In an effort to encourage companies to honor job offers made to graduating students, the government has compiled draft standards for publicizing the names of firms that withdraw such promises of employment, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Sunday.

The Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry's draft contains five criteria for disclosing the names of such firms.

One criterion in the draft states a firm will be named when it withdraws 10 or more job offers to graduating students in the same fiscal year.

The draft will be proposed Jan. 7 at the Labor Policy Council's working group on employment stabilization. Once approved, the ministry plans to start procedures to revise related legislation, including the Employment Security Law, with a view to complete the process by the end of January at the earliest.

According to the draft, firms' names would be released if they:

-- Withdraw job offers for two years in a row.

-- Withdraw 10 or more job offers within the same fiscal year.

-- Cancel job offers although there is no clear indicator that their business needs to be downsized.

-- Fail to properly explain to students why their job offer was withdrawn.

-- Fail to provide appropriate support to students to find another job.

A firm found to have committed any of the five acts will be publicly named, according to the draft. However, a firm that has withdrawn 10 or more job offers will not be named if it provides sufficient support to help the students in question find alternative employment, such as referring them to related companies.

When asked if the criteria would apply to firms that already have withdrawn job offers this fiscal year, a senior ministry official said: "It depends on what we should regard as a problem--the withdrawing of job offers itself or the condition in which job offers remain withdrawn. We'll discuss the matter further before deciding how to deal with such firms."

The Yomiuri Shimbun