Nitori, Sony Group most popular companies in Japan among job-hunting students

Furnishings retailer Nitori and Sony Group have topped rankings of companies job-hunting university students in Japan would like to work for after they graduate in 2025.

The annual ranking compiled by job-search website operator Mynavi Corp., and Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc. targeted soon-to-be job-hunting third-year university undergraduates and first-year post-graduates who will be due to graduate in March 2025. 

Nitori topped the ranking of popular Japanese employers among arts and humanities students for the second consecutive year.  

Headquartered in Hokkaido, Nitori’s furniture business model encompasses manufacturing, logistics, IT and retail. The company manages all processes from product planning and development to the procurement of raw material, factory production, quality inspection, logistics, IT, and sales, according to the company profile on Mynavi. 

The average term of employment at Nitori was 7.5 years (in 2019). Average monthly overtime stood at 16.2 hours (based on data from 2022) and employees took an average of 10.2 paid vacation days (based on data from 2021), according to Mynavi. 

Nitori topped the ranking ahead of Mizuho Financial Group in second and trading house Itochu Corp. in third. Mizuho made significant gains in popularity among arts and humanities students according to the latest ranking, moving up from 15th place the previous year.  

Sega (8th) and Bandai (10th) were among the game and toy-related companies to have made gains in the latest rankings. Another company to have seen a significant increase in popularity among arts and humanities students was Japan Airlines (JAL) which ranked 7th this time around, up from 13th the previous year.

Sony Group topped the ranking among students studying sciences for the third consecutive year.  

As a group, the company operates in the fields of gaming and network services, music, movies, entertainment technology and services, imaging and sensing solutions, and finance, among other fields, according to the company profile on Mynavi. 

The average term of employment at Sony Group was 16.7 years (in 2021). Employees took an average of 14.8 paid vacation days (based on data from 2021), according to Mynavi. 

Like Sony Group, food and biotech company Ajinomoto continues to be popular among students studying sciences, ranking second for the third consecutive year. Telecommunications provider KDDI made a huge leap to rank 3rd, all the way up from 121st the previous year. A recruitment process that clearly specifies the area of assignment after joining the company was one of the reasons behind KDDI’s boost in popularity, according to reports.

Other companies catching the eye of science students are Panasonic Group, which climbed from 25th to 5th, and Canon, from 13th to 8th.

The company popularity rankings among job-hunting students has been published annually since 1978. The latest rankings were compiled based on the results of a survey carried out between October 2023 and March 2024 which gathered over 39,000 valid responses.

Published on Tuesday, the rankings come at the beginning of the fiscal year when many workers in Japan start new jobs or take-up new positions at work after having been transferred. 

April also marks the beginning of the academic year in Japan. University students entering their final year may already have started to look for a job to take up after they graduate in March, the end of the academic year. The job-hunting process will often involve attending job orientation sessions, typically from the previous March, with interviewing and other tests beginning from June in the hope of securing a formal offer in October.  

The Japan Business Federation issues guidelines to control the conduct of its member companies trying to recruit, in batch, candidates ahead of their graduation from university.  

Fierce competition among companies to secure the services of the best talent has led to pressure tactics in the past, aimed at dissuading students from exploring their employment options to the full. Something which the business federation and universities, among others, have since tried to clamp down on.   

Most popular companies among arts and humanities students, according to the Mynavi / Nihon Keizai Shimbun ranking:

1: Nitori

2: Mizuho Financial Group

3: Itochu Corp.

4: MUFG Bank, Ltd.

5: Ajinomoto

6: Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.

7: Japan Airlines

8: Sega

9: JTB Group

10: Bandai

Most popular companies among science students, according to the Mynavi / Nihon Keizai Shimbun ranking:

1: Sony Group

2: Ajinomoto

3: KDDI

4: Sky (ICT solutions provider, others)

5: Panasonic Group

6: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. 

7: NTT Data

8: Canon

9: Sega

10: Toyota