Recruit Co., Ltd. and Works Institute are committed to “create a next generation society where everyone can work actively”.

With the ideals of creating a “mosaic society” that allows individuals to choose their work style based on their own strengths and preferences rather than their age or gender, Recruit Co..Ltd. and Works Institute have been committed to building a labor market that helps match the right talent with the right organization. We turned our wishes into reality through our various magazines for job listings which made job change common practice and through job boards that helped open up the job market for college graduates in Japan. We will continue to provide valuable and detailed information for job seekers as well as for employers and to fight for the elimination of discrimination. We are determined to exercise our leadership in helping build a more advanced labor market in Japan.

※Mosaic Society
A society that ensures flexibility and allows everyone to choose their own work style based on their personal strengths and preferences, not on age or gender. A concept introduced by Works Institute in 1997.

Japan was for many years a society centered around the notion of regular employment. In fact, the vast majority of employees of major corporations are still full-time regular employees. But the last decade has witnessed rapid diversification of employment status. The percentage of part-time workers in the labor force has surged, and more and more people choose to work on temporary or contract basis. Meanwhile, many corporations, having become more aware of their “talent portfolio”, now take holistic approach to decide what types of human resources to acquire by which employment arrangements.

As we have proposed flexible work and life styles such as “freeter” (adult part-time worker) and relocating to regional areas outside of hometown after working in cities（“I-turn”）or moving back to hometown after working in cities（“U-turn”）, we will continue to work on the improvement of the market mechanism and development of new work styles in order to build a society that allows individuals and companies to choose the best work arrangement when appropriate.

We now live in an age where individuals are likely to make several career choices during their working lives. These choices may involve changing employers, moving to a different position with the company, or studying abroad. Whatever the cases they are, if you can make the best decisions for yourself each time, you are sure to be able to lead fulfilling working lives. But the reality is that designing your own career path is not an easy task. That is because most people do not really know themselves, such as their skills, competencies or fit. Sometimes they don’t even know what they really want to do in their lives.

In order to help these individuals become self-reliant and take responsibility for their career choices, we have promoted corporate mentoring programs, developed career assessment and career counseling services and provided opportunities for internship experience. Taking further steps, we will continue to challenge ourselves to guide individuals to design their career paths throughout their lives.

We will promote discloser of information related with working terms and job descriptions to build an open labor market where individuals and organizations can choose each other. Furthermore, we aim to take one step further and create a system that matches preferences, skills and competence of individuals with corporate vision and culture. To accomplish this, we continue our challenge to develop common language for competencies and a category-based skills inventory. As we move forward, we intend to perfect our knowledge in matching the right individual with the right organizations in order to create best opportunities for individuals and organization to find each other.

Japan has become a “knowledge society” where the knowledge of individuals within organizations is the key for corporations to gain competitive advantage. While promoting the knowledge creation at individual level is organization’s biggest interest from corporate management’s perspective, improving one’s knowledge and skills throughout one’s life is also the biggest issue for individuals.

Employer’s ability to attract talent to become employers of choice comes in pair with individual’s ability to gain skills that are sought after by employers. Refining this relationship on a continual basis calls for effective strategies of human resources management. We want to help reinforce the relationship between individuals and organizations from a human capital perspective and support lifelong learning of individuals by conveying new messages and delivering new services.

General Manager of Works Institute, Corporate Professional Officer

Yukio Okubo joined Recruit Co. Ltd. in 1983 after graduating from Hitotsubashi University with B.A. in Economics. He launched Works Institute in 1999 and became General Manager after serving in such posts as manager of the Planning Section of the Human Resources Services and director of the Area Information Services. In 2010, he was assigned as Advisor to the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. In 2011, he became Corporate Professional Officer of Recruit Co., Ltd. He specializes in HRM, labor policy and career theory. He has published several books including “Employment in Japan: Where the Real Problems Are” (Kodansha Ltd., 2009) and “Career Design 101 I, II” (Nikkei Publishing Inc., 2006).

Hiroki Nakashige graduated School of Economics, Keio University. He joined Works Institute in 2011, after working as a manager of HR Sales dept of Recruit Co. Ltd. in 2009-2010.

1. Education
2. Experience
3. Areas of Expertise
4. Selected Publications and Papers