50% more college students visit public job centers

Of the current crop of college students due to graduate from Japan's universities next March, far more than usual are visiting a large public job center in Tokyo as the tough employment situation continues.

The Shinagawa job center has a consultation counter exclusively for college students who will graduate next year and those who graduated in the past three years.

On Wednesday, the first day of December, many college students looking for jobs visited the center, where they can find out about vacancies at companies or receive advice on how to handle job interviews.

The center says the number of students who used its services during the seven months through to October rose 50 percent from a year earlier.

One senior at a university in Tokyo says the employment situation is so severe that almost no friends have secured jobs so far and that any job opportunities should not be missed.

A man who graduated from university in March this year says he did not consider working for a small to midsized company last year but that he has had to expand his search to include such firms this year.

The head of the job center says students who are unable to find a job after visiting several dozens or even hundreds of companies come to his center. He says he wants to be able to continue helping those students.