Simultaneous recruiting of new graduates

According to a survey conducted by Mynavi, nearly 80% of job-seekers who had recently graduated from university had difficulty applying for entry-level positions in Japan.

The prestige of the university and high school that a student attends has a marked effect on their ability to find similarly sought-after jobs as adults.

The company may offer more jobs later on, but those who missed out on the current round of hiring will have a slim chance of gaining a position because they will be overshadowed by fresh graduates.

[citation needed] According to the nonprofit group Lifelink's survey conducted in July, 2013, one in five Japanese college students thought about committing suicide during the job-hunting process.

[citation needed] Reiko Kosugi, a research director at the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training, criticized this process in a 2006 essay in The Asia-Pacific Journal, saying, "If business is in a slump at the point of one's graduation and he cannot get a job, this custom produces inequality of opportunity, and people in this age bracket tend to remain unemployed for a long time.

[10] Shūshoku katsudō (就職活動),[11] which is abbreviated to Shūkatsu (就活), starts in April and ends during the hiring season each year from August to October.