Tag: daiwa

Japan’s megabanks most popular with Japanese graduates, electronics companies making a comeback

Japanese companies’ investment in their brand marketing, particularly their websites, may have more to do with attracting graduates from Japanese universities than attracting new customers in my experience.  Given that lifetime employment is still crucial to the big traditional companies (and still something many graduates aspire to), this is not surprising.

So Toyo Keizai’s survey of how the current graduate job seekers in Japan rate potential employers at the beginning and end of the recruitment process is a good indicator of the health of the brand and how well it was communicated to the job seekers.  This year the megabanks such as Mizuho (#1) and MUFG (#3)  are still in the Top 3 most highly rated employers even after the recruitment process, along with travel sector companies like ANA, JAL and JTB.  Other financial services companies like Nomura, Daiwa and Sompo are also in the top 10 with the other megabank, SMBC at #11.  This is much in line with the previous years’ graduates’ rankings.

Toyo Keizai notes that food and beverage companies seem to be increasing in popularity – Morinaga, Kagome and Kikkoman have all become more popular during the process and compared to last year.  Other major companies whose ratings improved dramatically over the recruitment process (so people got to like them once they met them) and are also more highly rated this year than by the previous year’s graduates include Panasonic (up to #39 from #156 last year at the beginning of the process), Mitsubishi Electric (#41 from #154) and Toyota (#35 from #57) and Fujitsu (#47 from #210).

Trading companies such as Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui, Sumitomo Corp and Itochu whilst still in the top 50, seem to have lost popularity compared to last year.

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What Japanese banks, trading companies look for in graduate hiring

The graduate hiring process in Japan reaches a peak towards the end of the year, as the naitei (informal offers) from the big firms have mostly been issued, and the smaller firms and the unlucky graduates desperately try to find solace in each others’ arms.  The process is meant to start in April, when students put on identical suits and attend countless company presentations and interviews, thereby pretty much wiping the final year out in terms of getting any studying done.  Japan’s universities mostly function on the American credit system, so there is not the pressure of ‘finals’ as you get in British universities, however Japan’s academics regularly complain about the damage done to the educational experience by the system.   There have been attempts to move the start date to August, so that students can do some studying in the first term, but unfortunately, with a shortage of skilled labour, it’s too tempting for most firms not to try to buck the system.

The Nikkei Business magazine ran a series in December to guide students through the process, explaining what financial services companies and trading companies are looking for and offering.  I thought I would share it, as it gives a flavour of the corporate culture of these elite employers who are active outside Japan.  I was interested to see how much better paid on average the trading companies’ recruits are than the financial services companies, and that a global mindset is mentioned regularly amongst the financial services, but not by the trading companies – presumably a global outlook is taken for granted.

In terms of overseas experience, the Nikkei says that some of the bigger banks send out several hundred people a year to overseas postings, and this is not just to support Japanese companies overseas, but increasingly to build business with local companies too.  English ability is not compulsory, but likely to be offered as training after entry.

The image of trading company employees is that they have to be able to speak English, are strong drinkers and sporty.  The trading companies themselves say English ability is not compulsory and there are even some naitei offers to people who don’t have a passport.  However all trading companies point out that they usually expect one of the three rotations in the first 10 or so years to be overseas.  The trading companies say it is not necessary to drink, but obviously it’s a bit awkward if your counterpart is a brewery.  Sportiness is not actively sought, but it’s true that on campus recruitment by employees may well focus on students who were in the same club as them.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ

Offers naitei to 1300 graduates, starting salary is Y205,000 (around £1200) a month. Average salary of all employees is Y7.91m (around £46K). They are looking for healthy curiousity, and eagerness to take up challenges

Mizuho Financial Group

Offers naitei to 1920 graduates.  Starting salary the same as BTMU. Average salary of all employees is Y7.38m (around £43K).  They are looking for intellectual curiousity, a global mindset and dynamism.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking

Offers naitei to 1800 graduates.  Starting salary the same as BTMU and Mizuho. Average salary of all employees is Y8.79m (£51K).  They are looking for people who are good at building relationships and have a global awareness.

Nomura

Offers naitei to 600 graduates.  Starting salary is Y232,300 a month (£1350).  Average salary of all employees is Y11.93m (£69K).  They are looking for people with ambition, honesty and flexibility.

Daiwa

Offers naitei to around 690 graduates. Starting salary is Y240,000 a month (£1395). Average salary of all employees is Y10.02m (£58K). They are also looking for honesty but also a strong spirit of enquiry

Sompo Japan Nipponkoa

Offers naitei to around 750 graduates.  Starting salary is Y237,860 a month (£1383).  Average salary of all employees is Y6.6m  (£38K).  SJNK is looking for “ability to stand on your own feet”

 

Trading companies:

Itochu

Offers naitei to around 142 graduates (out of 7000 applications). Starting salary is Y240,000 (£1395). Average salary of all employees is Y13.95m (£81K).  They are looking for honesty and optimism

Mitsubishi Corporation

Offers naitei to around 160 graduates (out of 6000 applications).  Starting salary is the same as the other trading companies.  Average salary of all employees is Y13.75m (£80K). They are looking for trustworthiness, strength and intellectual ability.

Mitsui

Offer naitei to around 120-150 graduates (out of 6000 applications). Same starting salary as the other trading companies.  Average salary of all employees is Y13.61m (£79K).  They are looking for intellectual curiosity, ambition, ability to develop yourself

Sumitomo Corporation

Offer naitei to around 130 graduates (out of 7000 applications).  Same starting salary as the others.  Average salary of all employees is Y13m (£76K).  They are looking for ability to innovate, execute and collaborate

Marubeni

Offer naitei to around 122 graduates (out of 7700 applications).  Same starting salary as the others.  Average salary of all employees is Y13.06m (£76K).  They are looking for people who stand up for themselves and don’t run away (!)

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To be a rich company director in Japan, be foreign or the founder

The cover story for the Nikkei Business magazine last month was on Japanese corporate governance, specifically focusing on what makes for effective use of outside directors (and citing Sony as a case of ineffective use of outside directors).

One of Japanese prime minister Abe’s policies for strengthening Japanese corporate governance has been to introduce a comply-or-explain regulation for any company listed on the Japanese stock markets with less than one outside director on its board.  The Nikkei notes that in other countries such as the USA, UK, France and Germany, regulations are stricter, requiring comply-or-explain for boards with less than half the directors as outside directors, in most cases.

Some other statistics caught my eye:

  • Outside directors of listed Japanese companies who have board level experience elsewhere – 38.1%
  • Average time served as director – 4 years
  • Average salary – Y12m (not much more than US$100K)
  • Female directors are 6.5% (159 directors) of the total
  • Foreign directors are 2.9% (70 directors) of the total
  • They spend around 10-11 hours a month on their directorial duties

Best paid directors overall for Japanese listed companies:

  1. Carlos Ghosn – Nissan (US$9m)
  2. Frank Morich – Takeda Pharma (until April 1 2014) (US$9m)
  3. Kohji Tanabe founder of U-Shin (automotive and industrial equipment) (US$7.6m)
  4. Kazuo Okada founder of  Universal Entertainment (Pachinko) (US$7.4)
  5. Tadataka Yamada – Takeda Pharma (US$7.4m)

Other foreigners in the top 30 include Timothy Andree at Dentsu (advertising agency), Roger Barnett at Shaklee (nutritional supplements company which was majority owned by Japanese pharmaco Yamanouchi and is still listed on JASDAQ), Carsten Fischer at Shiseido and Ronald Fisher at Softbank.

Companies with the most directors earning over Y100m (US$900K) were

  1. Mitsubishi Electric (18)
  2. Canon (12)
  3. FANUC (automation products) (10)
  4. Mitsubishi Corporation (8)
  5. Mitsui & Co (8)
  6. Nomura (7)
  7. Toyota (7)
  8. Daiwa Securities (6)
  9. Itochu (6)
  10. Nissan (5)

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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