TOKYO: An increasing number of companies in Japan this year opted to do recruiting activities online amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some decided to give informal job offers without meeting candidates in person.

Online recruiting is expected to spread further next year and beyond as the practice helps companies streamline their hiring procedures.

This year, cyberspace became a major venue for recruiting activities after joint job seminars sponsored by job information providers Recruit Career Co. and Mynavi Corp. were canceled due to the pandemic.

Nearly 80 percent of 1,122 companies surveyed by online job site operator Disco Inc. have opted to hold company information sessions and job interviews online.

Some companies, including Kirin Holdings Co. and Hitachi Ltd., have decided to hold final interviews with job-hunting students online.

But many others are still hoping to see candidates face to face before giving job offers. "We want to see students in person if possible," Ajinomoto Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Takaaki Nishii said.

Some job-hunting students are having hard time adjusting to remote job-hunting activities.

"In online interviews, I don't know what's right," said a female university student who lives in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, showing her frustration with not being able to see the responses of interviewers in person.

Another female university student who lives in Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, welcomed remote recruiting activities. "It saves time and transportation costs," she said.

Companies that are able to use the internet for recruiting activities are proceeding with their recruiting activities without problems, said Makoto Takahashi, chief editor of the Mynavi job information website.

In a Mynavi survey, 82.6 percent of companies have no plans to cut the number of students they plan to newly employ.

"Companies that had been suspending their recruiting activities will resume them soon. I want students to do job-hunting activities without panicking," Takahashi said.

JIJI Press