Japanische Unternehmen setzen alles daran, junge Arbeitskräfte zu rekrutieren

# Japanese Companies Are Pulling Out All the Stops to Recruit Young Workers

Firms are so desperate for graduates they’re paying off student loans and offering cheap housing.

Ryosuke Yamamoto is living the dream. For about 25,000 yen ($160) a month, the 25-year-old rents a single room complete with kitchenette and bathroom in a corporate dormitory 20 minutes by train from his office in downtown Tokyo.

On Friday nights, he hangs out with colleagues in the dorm’s common area, playing video games on a widescreen TV and drinking beer purchased from a vending machine. With parking and utility bills included in the dorm’s rent, he’s got money left over for regular golf outings with friends. Last October, he went on vacation to Italy.

“It’s an amazing benefit and lets me spend money on other things,” said Yamamoto, who joined Nippon Life Insurance Co. in 2022 after graduating with a degree in law and political science. He now works as an assistant manager in the human resources development department.

Amid chronic labor shortages in aging Japan, companies like Nippon Life are splurging on benefits to lure and retain young talent. The nation’s largest insurer built the 200-room male dormitory in a prime residential area near Tokyo Disneyland in 2023. Employees living there pay less than a third of the average rent for similar accommodation in the neighborhood. The company also rents other residential properties to provide subsidized accommodation for female employees.

With a falling birth rate, Japan’s working-age population is expected to rapidly decline from 2027, according to a study by independent think tank Recruit Works Institute. By 2040, the country may face a shortage of more than 11 million workers.

The working population aged 20-24 declined 36% in the past three decades to 4.7 million in 2023, according to data compiled by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

With the labor market tight, companies are locking in university students months ahead of their graduation. Just over 40% of those graduating in March 2025 had at least one job offer a full year before they finished — the highest percentage since 2016, according to a report by Shushoku Mirai Kenkyusho, a research institute.

Companies also face a battle to retain workers. While historically, employees in Japan would spend their entire career with one firm, almost 35% of university graduates from the 2021 cohort left their first company within three years of joining, data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare shows.

“The game doesn’t end at finalizing an offer. We need to keep telling the candidates how much we want them and how appealing our company is,” said Yuichi Shimada, deputy general manager in Nippon Life’s HR development department. Shimada says fresh graduates hold five to 10 offers and often make up their minds at the last minute. “It’s getting harder and harder to secure them.”

Corporate dormitories and subsidized housing for families have been provided as a benefit by Japanese companies for years. But that’s tailed off since peaking in the early 1990s, as companies have tried to reduce costs and minimize the risks of real estate investments losing value in a stagnant economy. Almost 42% of companies offered such accommodation in the 2022 financial year, down from nearly 64% in fiscal 2004, according to research by the National Personnel Authority, which oversees public-sector recruitment and training.