Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 439 Protective Guarantee

Back in Tokyo, Masato Takeshita had barely settled in when he received a call from his former principal.

After a few polite exchanges, the former principal, Haruo Nishihara, revealed his purpose.

"Junior Takeshita, on behalf of our school principal Takayasu Okushima, I hope you can grant us a request."

"There's one thing you need to say."

The young man wasn't foolish enough to agree immediately; he decided to listen to what was said first.

If it's too difficult to do, even with the utmost respect for one's alma mater, it's impossible for them to agree.

Haruo Nishihara, a renowned Japanese legal scholar and social activist, naturally understood his junior's subtext.

But since you're asking for a favor, you naturally need to have the mindset of asking for a favor.

He pretended nothing had happened and continued speaking in a sincere tone.

"Hey junior, the employment situation at our school this year isn't ideal. Especially for graduate students, the job market is pretty bad. I was wondering if you could help me out."

"What, did Waseda University also increase its enrollment several times over the year before last?"

The difficulty Japanese university graduates face in finding employment is a long-standing problem that is hard for both the government and businesses to solve.

The addition of Xinghai Group in this life has indeed made things much better, but the overall employment rate for college graduates is still below 70%.

However, last year was better because the government abolished the university recruitment system, allowing university students to freely participate in corporate recruitment activities, and the employment rate eventually increased to 75%.

The results are even more pronounced when compared to the world without the Xinghai Group, with an increase of approximately 7% in employment.

Of course, every policy has its advantages and disadvantages.

After Japan abolished its campus recruitment policy, coupled with a brutal job market, university students began to engage in extreme competition.

Many college students start interning at various companies in their freshman year and also take all sorts of useful and useless certification exams.

Not for any other reason than to make my resume look better.

Unfortunately, the job market for Japanese university students at that time was very similar to that of China in the 20s.

There are too many college graduates. If you don't have enough internship experience or certifications, you can only work in low-paying industries.

Let alone big companies, they won't even hire you for a job that seems decent enough.

As for graduate students, the employment environment is even worse, far worse than that for undergraduates.

On the one hand, Japan's orderly plan to double the number of graduate students quickly went bankrupt due to the greed of private universities in pursuit of higher profits.

The number of graduate students has doubled in ten years?
That's a pipe dream. I'll double it in three years, you'll see.

Many private universities have already started recruiting students even before they have established graduate programs.

As a result, the quality of graduate students is naturally questionable. Just like China's future view of one-year UK and Australian master's programs, which are considered "watered-down" in comparison, the attitude will be one of disdain.

On the other hand, the undergraduates who were admitted to graduate school also lacked the right attitude.

Many people take the postgraduate entrance exam not for in-depth learning, but because they failed to find employment during their undergraduate studies and have no choice but to pursue a postgraduate degree.

They thought that getting a master's degree would guarantee them a good job in the future, so they didn't study hard and instead focused on having fun.

Companies aren't stupid; they quickly realized the situation of most master's degree holders. Therefore, they are very selective about master's degree holders during recruitment, especially those from private universities.

Finally, under increasing pressure from the United States, large Japanese companies are experiencing a decline in scientific research.

There aren't that many suitable positions for graduate students in society; people tend to prefer younger undergraduates who also earn lower salaries.

Once a social consensus is formed, it is not so easy for it to dissipate.

Even master's students from the two top private universities, Waseda and Keio, are now facing employment difficulties, which shows the general living conditions of master's students from other schools.

Without Xinghai Group, the student employment rate would probably be difficult to reach 70%.

Yes, abolishing campus recruitment as a strategy will soon become ineffective.

Corporate recruitment of college graduates has decreased by 5 percentage points compared to last year, and is expected to continue to decline next year.

However, things are still relatively good right now; next year, it will be even more difficult for Japanese university students to find employment.

“That’s right, junior Okushima has also more than doubled the number of master’s students at the school.”

"I see. There shouldn't be any problem. I'll have the company's HR department conduct another recruitment drive."

Waseda University doesn't have many master's students in total, and among those who find jobs, the number is at most two thousand.

Even if the average salary of such a small number of people were increased to the tens of millions, the annual expenditure would only be 200 billion yen.

Furthermore, given the current situation in Japan, the starting salary for university graduates is very low.

Even for a large company like Xinghai Group, the average salary for a regular position is around 500 million yen. That translates to only 100 billion yen, which isn't even enough for one of Xinghai Group's simple technology expenditures.

"Junior, thank you so much. I'm so sorry to always trouble you."

Haruo Nishihara was moved, but also felt deeply ashamed. He had troubled Masato Takeshita many times with the issue of student employment.

"No, I'm also a student at Waseda University. Without Waseda's help, Xinghai Group wouldn't have been able to develop so quickly."

Without the Waseda University brand, even if Masato Takeshita had the patent for the rolling suitcase, he wouldn't have been able to easily get a bank loan.

If you're not careful, there's even a possibility that the bank might maliciously leak your suitcase's secrets.

Even if I win the lawsuit, I'll probably only get some compensation, which is nothing compared to what I would earn running my own company.

Of course, without the Waseda brand, he wouldn't have been able to get a loan using his patents.

He'll just apply for a loan of tens of millions, like those speculators during the bubble era.

Half of the money was used for stock trading, and the other half was used to start a company and then find a factory to manufacture suitcases.

Development is still possible, but it will be several years slower.

Perhaps his company will only get back on track when Japan's economic bubble bursts.

"Junior Masato is too modest. With your extraordinary talent, you can rise to prominence at any time. Waseda University is the one that benefits from this."

One flattered the other, the other was polite; they chatted for about half an hour before saying goodbye.

Haruo Nishihara wanted to share the good news with his successor, while Masato Takeshita also wanted to review the relevant information.

"Uchida-san, please gather information on the employment situation of the seven Imperial Universities, Waseda and Keio Universities, Japan's First Institute of Technology, and 12 medical and dental universities. I need it the day after tomorrow."

Although Waseda University seemed to be in a hurry, Masato Takeshita still gave Miho Uchida some time to organize the materials.

It's only the end of February, and there's still some time before Japan's graduation season in March. There's no need to make subordinates work too hard because of their juniors.

"Yes, President!"

Xinghai Group has been collecting and organizing this information, and soon the figures were presented to Takeshita.

"Well, no wonder."

Undergraduates are doing well; Waseda and Keio are at the same level, and their employment rate can still be maintained at around 90%.

After all, the two schools hold a similar status in Japan to the two bottom-ranked C9 universities in China. Even if their overall employment rate is not good, it is unlikely to affect the employment of their undergraduate students.

It's different for graduate students.

Japanese private universities have far less research funding than national and public universities, and their strength in science and engineering is also far inferior, let alone comparable to imperial universities. As a result, the quality of master's students at Waseda and Keio universities is predictable.

What's worse is that Waseda and Keio are primarily focused on humanities education, and only a few disciplines such as law, as well as students who specialize in research, are suitable for postgraduate studies or even doctoral programs.

Many students don't need further education; it's best to go directly into employment after completing their undergraduate studies.

With its average educational level and focus on humanities, Waseda and Keio University naturally have low graduate employment rates.

Of course, Keio University is still slightly better than Waseda University.

Because Keio knew his own limitations, the scale of his expansion was very small.

Waseda University is different; they want to achieve everything at once.

Now things are really bad. The employment rate of master's students is not only lower than that of top national universities, but also much lower than that of Keio University.

"Fine, sigh, what can I do? I graduated from Waseda University."

Masato Takeshita suspects there's a conspiracy at play here, and that it might be because of him that Waseda is expanding its enrollment so aggressively.

After all, although he cannot be said to share the same fate as Waseda University, he still had a significant influence.

If he doesn't save Waseda University, he'll watch its reputation suffer. He'll not only lose face in front of his juniors and students, but he'll also be ridiculed by others.

People won't see how bad Waseda University is; they'll just think that Masato Takeshita is heartless and ungrateful, not caring about his own alma mater.

"However, it's not good to only hire college graduates from early-stage universities. We've finally managed to balance the number of graduates from different universities in the company, wouldn't this disrupt that balance again?"

Waseda University has a certain status in Japan, but it is far inferior to the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. In fields such as research and development, it cannot even compare with national universities.

He didn't want to jeopardize the company's recruitment efforts at top universities like the University of Tokyo just because of Waseda University.

"Okay, let's recruit everyone then, to avoid any unforeseen circumstances."

After thinking it over, Masato Takeshita decided to spend money to avoid further trouble.

Spending more money each year to support employees is better than damaging the company's image.

Furthermore, the fact that these students failed to secure a pre-selected position only indicates that their interview skills were lacking.

If placed in the right position, he might very well achieve great things.

"Huh, it doesn't seem necessary to go through all that trouble?"

Looking at the number of undergraduate and graduate students from the 12 universities listed in the document, Masato Takeshita came up with an even better idea.

These 12 universities have a combined annual graduation count of around 10 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.

Excluding local and central government civil servants, those who want to pursue further studies at home and abroad, and those who have family businesses to inherit, the number of people entering the job market each year will not exceed 7.

Of the 70,000 who choose employment, most can get jobs in large domestic companies, while a few can get contracts in small and medium-sized enterprises.

The number of people unable to find work is less than 1 per year.

Masato Takeshita plans to hire all of these people, with the specific tasks to be arranged by the various subsidiaries.

Of course, because these people are the ones left over from other companies' sales, their salaries will be lower than those of the top graduates recruited by Xinghai Group.

The first batch of selected graduates can earn an average annual salary of over 500 million.

This batch of packages is estimated to be around 400 million.

Of course, this level is not low either.

Because in general, even large Japanese companies, the starting salary for graduates is only around 20 yen. Including the first-half bonus, the annual salary is only around 300 million yen.

Besides, the Xinghai Group offers transportation and housing subsidies. Although not much, it's still 50 yen per year.

All things considered, you could basically live in any city in Japan and reach an average level.

Yes, the recruitment process by Xinghai Group does not guarantee that employees will be hired in Tokyo.

Especially for graduates who come in packing, their destination is basically local.

As for those who really want to stay in Tokyo, that's fine too, it just means the job opportunities will be worse.

Their offices will be located in certain administrative positions that are low-paying and demanding.

Of course, there are also less demanding administrative positions.

But those positions are either highly specialized or reserved for company leaders and outsiders with connections.

Occasionally, someone without connections might be willing to stay in those positions. Because those places are a graveyard for newcomers; you won't learn anything there, and promotions and raises are definitely out of the question.

With his new idea in mind, Masato Takeshita immediately put it into action.

He first convened a meeting and told the company's leadership about the matter.

"Do you all think there's anything wrong with what I'm doing?"

“I think it’s great; it can help us get closer to top universities.”

Yasuo Tarui was the first to agree; he had recently been driven crazy by a lot of relatives, friends, and former colleagues who wanted to pull strings to get into the Xinghai Group.

However, the company has a rule that the number of people hired through connections cannot exceed 5% of the total number of hires each year, putting him in a dilemma.

Now that he has the chance to pack everything up and take it all away, he is naturally very happy to see it.

"Yes, I also think this recruitment policy is very good."

Rogers quickly agreed, saying that although he was a foreigner, he had lived and worked in Japan for decades and could be considered Japanese.

He was also annoyed by his relatives and friends, and he was in a dilemma about who to give the annual job openings to.

Yes, senior leaders of Xinghai Group have a quota for being hired by the company without taking an exam.

However, the number of leaders in the Xinghai Group is large, and most of the positions are in the hands of Masato Takeshita, which means that even if they are vice presidents, they have less than 5 positions.

This amount is certainly not enough.

Now that the company has relaxed its policies, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Following the two, Masaharu Nishimura, Takamasa Kamoto, Hiroaki Kobayashi, and others quickly joined in praising the chairman's wisdom.

Only Scully and Kalinsky remained silent.

This is normal, though. Both are foreigners and don't have deep roots within the company, so there are still some positions available, so it doesn't bother them.

Masato Takeshita didn't seem to care.

He quickly smiled and said, "Since everyone agrees and the annual cost isn't much, let's go with it."

Once the policy is decided, it can't just be sent out in a dry, unpolished manner.

Masato Takeshita plans to send Rogers, who is in charge of the company's external public relations, to various universities to curry favor with them.

If you do good deeds, you should publicize them, otherwise no one will know that you did them.

Furthermore, they will not only visit various universities, but also promote the Xinghai Group in newspapers and on television to further enhance its reputation.

Of course, such good news should naturally come from our own company.

Masato Takeshita decisively sold Rogers to his own TBS television station and Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, seizing the opportunity to boost ratings and newspaper sales.

(End of this chapter)