Why Japanese university students don’t study─ The Japanese style of business skill development

Japanese stop studying when they enter university.

University life in Japan is a bit peculiar. Even students who studied over ten hours a day to pass university entrance exams suddenly stop studying much once they enter university. In a way, this is actually the correct approach. This strange phenomenon stems from the influence of Japan’s unique education and employment systems. This time, I’m gonna talk about why Japanese university students don’t study.

The first reason, because of evaluation system in new graduate job hunting.

In Japan’s job-hunting scene for univ students, I don’t know about science majors, but for liberal arts majors, specialized skills are rarely required. Many people secure jobs without highly specialization or a business qualification. Japan has a labor culture of hiring fresh graduates and training them afterward. Consequently, students aren’t expected to have hard skills that make them immediately productive. Of course, having them is better than not, but they aren’t heavily weighted in the selection process.

Then, what do companies require for students in new graduate job market? They require soft skills such as communication skills, leadership, and teamwork. To measure soft skills, companies often ask about what you focused on during your university years—known as “Gakuchika.” Specifically, they ask stories about experiences like from part-time jobs, club activities, or volunteer work. They ask about how you resolved challenges, instances where you demonstrated leadership, and your role within the team. To answer these questions effectively, students need to dedicate more time to extracurricular activities than to their studies.

The second reason, Japanese university is easy to graduate.

Also, Japanese university classes are honestly not so difficult and easy to graduate. That is the second reason why Japanese university students don’t study. While getting into Japanese universities is difficult, graduating is easier. Just by earing attendance point and writing simple final reports, you can get credits. Therefore, there’s no need to study intensely to keep up with classes or prepare for exams. Of course, the level of classes depends on the university, but if you have the academic ability to pass the entrance exam, you’ll rarely struggle to graduate.

Therefore, Japanese students minimize the time spent on academics as much as possible so they can focus on the extracurricular activities mentioned earlier. Specifically, they take easy classes to earn credit, or they attend classes without listening to the lectures. Such scenes are not uncommon even at prestigious universities. While efficiently fulfilling graduation requirements, they also strive to build up material for their job-hunting activities.

The most important thing in Japanese university life is to make actions.

University life in Japan gives you a lot of free time. With this free time, you have enough opportunity to take on new challenges. Consequently, those who actively pursue challenges gain a lot of experience and have plenty to talk about during job hunting. On the other hand, those who don’t make actions miss out on growth opportunities and struggle in interviews due to a lack of things to talk about. In Japanese university life, how you make the most of the free time determines your success or failure.