Artificial intelligence is reshaping how Japanese companies hire new graduates. With automation reducing the need for staff, more than one in five firms are considering smaller graduate intakes from fiscal 2029 onward, a survey showed.
AI Rewrites the Hiring Formula, Starting With Office Jobs
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 24th, a survey of major companies on hiring plans and the scope for AI to take over work found that only 3.2% plan to reduce graduate hiring next fiscal year. The share rose to 10.4% for fiscal 2028, counting firms that will cut intakes or are weighing cuts. For fiscal 2029 and beyond, 21.9% signaled or were considering smaller intakes.
Office work topped the list of roles AI could replace, at 87.5%. Management positions such as corporate planning and general affairs, and technical roles such as IT and engineering, each came in at 25%. As AI allows companies to handle existing tasks with fewer people, firms appear to be reassessing how many graduates they need.
The decline is already visible in the hiring market. Of the 42 industries surveyed, 23 will take on fewer graduates next fiscal year than a year earlier. In manufacturing, 11 of 19 industries plan smaller intakes, turning negative for the first time in six years. Among non-manufacturing industries, 12 of 23 plan to cut hiring.
AI-Related Industries Expand Hiring, With Focus on Selecting Talent
Not every company is narrowing the door. In fields where demand is growing with the expansion of the AI industry, firms are moving aggressively to secure staff. Kioxia, a maker of flash memory, plans to increase its graduate intake next spring by 32.9% from a year earlier. AI is lowering staffing needs in some roles while raising the importance of securing specialist talent in related industries.
Nikkei said Japanese companies are shifting their personnel strategies away from simply adding headcount toward identifying the talent that will drive future growth. The spread of AI may change not only how many people companies hire but also the kind of people they want.
Meanwhile, early turnover among new hires continued to fall. According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 31.2% of those who graduated from university in March 2023 and found jobs left their companies within three years. That was down 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier, marking a second straight annual decline. Improvements in working conditions, introduced as companies responded to labor shortages, are seen as contributing to the drop.
Lee Jae-myung Moves to Revive the Chip Industry. As speed in building and running plants becomes decisive in the AI chip race, the government has made its play. It plans to run industrial park permits and design work in parallel and revise customs rules on equipment and parts, cutting construction time by up to five years. What will the government's plan to speed up chip production change on the ground?
Hashtags: #ChipFanatic #ChipPlant #SamsungElectronics #SKhynix #ChipPolicy #AIChips #NewsClip