Japan’s labor market has long remained “amateur” — and with that, it cannot win in global competition.

 

Read the original article (in Japanese):

経費を湯水のように消費…大企業が毎年30人の大学生を採用するのにかかる「桁違いな予算」｜資産形成ゴールドオンライン


■ When “Training the Young” Becomes the Goal Itself

“There’s no point in hiring many people if they don’t stay — the real goal is how many become true assets to the company.”

This line from a recruitment article cuts to the heart of what hiring should be. It’s not a numbers game; it’s about finding people who support the company long-term.

But the examples used in that same article are all focused on hiring 30 new graduates a year, with a cost of 1 million yen per person. In short, it assumes recruitment equals fresh graduate hiring.

If retention is the goal, why must they all be new grads? Why is it taken for granted that talent must be “trained from scratch”?
This reveals a deeper issue in Japanese corporate culture: training young people has become a goal in itself, rather than a means to an end.

In reality, training is just one way to achieve performance. Yet Japanese companies have turned it into a virtue — even a moral ideal. As a result, they lack the tools and mindset to fairly assess mid-career professionals. Despite the wealth of “standby talent” available in the market, they fail to recognize or utilize it.

■ Ignoring “Standby Talent” — A Sign of an Amateur System

Japan is filled with untapped potential:

  • The “lost generation” of workers from the job-hunting ice age

  • Women returning to work after parenting or caregiving

  • Skilled professionals in rural areas

  • Highly qualified but overlooked mid-career job seekers

These people are ready to contribute — immediately. And yet, many companies reject them for vague reasons like “not a cultural fit” or “a bit too old.”
This is the hallmark of an amateur labor market, more akin to a high school club than a professional organization.

■ What a Professional Market Looks Like

In Western economies and global sports, career experience is an asset.
Veteran players in MLB or European football are valued based on performance, not age. Achievements raise market value, regardless of where you started.

Meanwhile, in Japan:

  • Age and tenure still dominate evaluations

  • Conformity is prized over capability

  • Job-hopping is seen as instability, not versatility

This is not how professional markets operate. It is an amateur system that cannot survive in a merit-based world.

■ When You Can’t Evaluate a Career, You Lose Competence

A career is supposed to reflect what someone has done and what they can do again.
But in Japan, people are still judged by how long they’ve stayed, not what they’ve achieved.

As a result:

  • Capable individuals remain hidden

  • Innovation stalls due to lack of mobility

  • Risk-takers are punished

  • Global companies attract Japan’s best talent away

Japan is slowly becoming a “graveyard of human capital.”

■ The Real Shift: From “Training” to “Recognizing Talent”

Hiring shouldn’t be about how well a company can train — it should be about how well it can evaluate, attract, and integrate the right people.

Right now, Japan is trying to compete on a global stage with an amateur system:

  • It fails to bid competitively for top talent

  • It lacks frameworks to assess proven experience

  • It offers limited reward for proven skill

Unless Japan professionalizes its labor market, no amount of AI or DX will close the gap.
Economic competitiveness begins with recognizing value in people — not just growing it from scratch.

What Japan needs is not more training programs, but a system that sees talent, rewards experience, and knows how to use it.
That — not “育成信仰” — is the essence of a professional labor market.


Read in Japanese↓

日本の労働市場はずっと「アマチュア」、これでは国際競争に勝てない（2025.7.2）

Read more articles (in Japanese)↓

AI就活で学生を批判する担当者に告ぐ。採用力のない企業こそが問題である（2025.6.30）

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