Govt Aims to Help Doctorate Degree Holders Find Jobs; Aims to Boost Industrial Competitiveness

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, August 28, 2024

The government will start making full-fledged efforts to help doctorate degree holders land jobs at corporations.

Japanese companies are generally reluctant to hire and make use of doctorate degree holders. The proportion of the population who hold such a degree is also smaller in Japan compared with the United States and advanced European countries.

The government aims to create an environment where companies find it easier to hire the specialist staff essential for technological innovation for the purpose of boosting the country’s industrial competitiveness.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry held the first meeting of a review panel on the issue on Monday. The panel is headed by Kazushige Kawabata, executive vice president of Niigata University. Panel members include those in charge of personnel affairs at companies that proactively employ doctorate degree holders, such as Hitachi, Ltd. and CyberAgent, Inc., as well as those interested from the academic and business communities.

The panel will examine job placement systems for doctorate degree holders and the challenges involved before compiling guidance in March.

The guidance is expected to introduce concrete examples of wage systems that take into account doctorate degree holders’ age and research achievements. It is also anticipated to propose introducing flexible recruitment systems, such as job-focused employment, under which the duties of specialist employees are clearly defined. Universities are expected to be requested to allocate employment counselors dedicated to doctorate degree holders and proactively accept those with work experience to their doctoral programs.

The government has decided to take action because Japanese businesses often fail to capitalize on those with doctorate degrees. The economy ministry’s survey in 2020 showed that about 76.6% of Japanese companies hired no doctorate degree holders.

The periodic recruiting of new graduates is a system adopted by many Japanese companies, and they lack experience in hiring those with doctorate degrees. In many cases, such people are hired through a referral from their doctoral supervisors. Some point out that there tends to be a “mismatch” between companies and students.

The percentage of students with doctorate degrees who have settled in jobs at companies or elsewhere is about 40%, making it difficult for many to have a clear prospect for the future. This has resulted in a decrease in the number of students who advance to doctorate courses.

According to the education ministry, the proportion of doctorate degree holders per million population is 126 in Japan, lower than 344 in South Korea, 342 in Britain and 286 in the United States.

The government launched assistance measures for companies that hire doctorate degree holders, giving tax breaks to cover some of their personnel expenses. For its part, the education ministry set a goal of raising the proportion of doctorate degree holders by about 200% in 2040 from fiscal 2020.

At university-originated startup companies in Japan, 20% of their staff are doctorate degree holders.