Second Round of List of Attractive Regional “Companies Continuing to Recruit New Graduates” Announced

1. Current situations surrounding students seeking employment

As Japanese companies are advancing their recruiting activities of new graduates in FY2020, some companies have postponed or canceled recruiting fairs or stopped recruiting activities due to the impacts of the novel coronavirus disease. These situations are affecting students seeking employment. However, METI considers that meticulous measures for supporting such students in finding employment have the potential, despite the recent jobs-to-applicants ratio for university graduates being lower than that of the previous year.

2. Overview of the support measure

In light of such situations, on October 27, 2020, the government of Japan, the Minister for Promoting Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, jointly requested that economic associations recruit students who will graduate from schools at the end of FY2020 or FY2021 from mid-to-long term standpoints.

Moreover, METI selected 503 regional mid-ranking companies and SMEs as “Companies Continuing to Recruit New Graduates” and published the list of the selected companies on November 20, 2020. These companies responded in a questionnaire survey that they will continue to recruit new graduates in FY2020 and met METI’s requirements to be categorized within one of three approved groups that are eligible for the selection: “Companies Driving Regional Futures,” (which drive Japanese regional economies), “Global Niche Top Companies,” which play a leading role globally; and “Companies Engaging in Diversity Management,” which encourage a variety of human resources to play a leading role in the organization.

In this context, METI also included regional mid-ranking companies and SMEs selected under the Vibrant HABATAKU Small and Medium Enterprises 300 Program,* which are companies that play a leading role in a variety of fields, in addition to the three categories of companies mentioned above, and hereby publishes the second round of the list of “Companies Continuing to Recruit New Graduates,” showing 889 selected companies. Together with this list, METI also publishes measures for supporting companies in expanding efforts for recruiting new graduates, e.g., tax systems for promotion of securing human resources.

Region-by-region breakdown of the number of companies continuing to recruit new graduates shown in the second round of the list

METI will provide information on these companies through career centers in universities, contact counters established for new graduates opened in Public Employment Security Offices (commonly called “Hello Work”) and other locations. Through this effort, METI will strive to further expand networking opportunities between new graduates and companies.

Related Materials:

• Second Round of the List of “Companies Continuing to Recruit New Graduates” (December, 2020) (in Japanese) (PDF:2,087KB)
• Measures for supporting companies in expanding efforts for recruiting new graduates (in Japanese) (PDF:365KB)

Division in Charge

Human Resources Policy Office, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau