Japan Education Ministry Plans to Use Metaverse to Help Foreign Students Find Jobs After Graduating

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:25 JST, February 2, 2024

The government plans to utilize the metaverse in a program to make it easier for exceptional foreign students to stay in Japan and enter the work force after graduating.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology Ministry will provide support by holding job fairs and employment seminars in a virtual environment that facilitates easy connection with potential employers.

The government has set a target employment rate of 60% for foreign students in Japan by the end of 2033. The rate rose steadily from 31.9% in fiscal 2013 to 48.0% in fiscal 2018, but has since leveled off, and was 46.5% in the latest available statistics from fiscal 2021.

According to the education ministry, there are cases in which foreign students have expressed interest in finding work in Japan, but because they do not understand the job hunting system or how to research employers, they give up and return to their home countries.

To improve the situation, the education ministry plans to make use of a portal site that had been developed for sharing lecture videos between universities, and set up venues in the metaverse for job fairs and employment seminars.

The students will be able to control a personal avatar through their smartphones and make the rounds of the company booths, where they will hear pitches from the avatars of recruiters. By having the venue in the metaverse, it is expected that not only will it draw foreign students from around the country, but companies will also find it easier to participate.

“For foreign students unfamiliar with how the job search works in Japan, participating in employments events has been a high hurdle,” an education ministry official in charge said. “We want to facilitate the matching of companies looking to hire and students wanting to work in Japan.”