News Tokyo University urging companies to reduce owahara

[thomas]

The University of Tokyo has called on companies to stop using pressure tactics on job-hunting students to get their preferred candidates to give up considering rival firms. The request by Japan's most prestigious university comes as such practices have become problematic in recent years as companies compete fiercely to secure employees amid a chronic labour shortage.

おわハラ (owahara, deriving from 就活終われハラスメント):

A newer term which was just coined this past March is おわハラ (owahara, coming from 就活終われハラスメント or "job search termination harassment"). It refers to when potential employers pressure their university student recruits to stop considering offers from other companies by offering them a guaranteed position in their own. [Source]

The pressure takes various forms, such as obliging students who have received informal job offers to frequently attend social gatherings, endure long hours of job training or participate in study trips, thus preventing them from exploring opportunities with other firms, experts in labor issues said. In the worst cases, students are ordered to call other companies on the spot to declare that they will no longer consider finding jobs with them or sign a document promising to join a particular company if they wish to receive an informal employment offer from it, according to the experts. [...] The situation surrounding such pressure tactics has gradually improved since the issue emerged several years ago. A government survey showed the percentage of students who have experienced such practices stood at 10.9 percent in fiscal 2022, which ended in March, compared with 19.9 percent in fiscal 2015 when the survey began.

Japan's top univ. asks firms to stop pressuring job-hunting students

The University of Tokyo has called on companies to stop using pressure tactics on job-hunting students to get their preferred candidates to give up considering rival firms.

english.kyodonews.net