Company and university representatives agreed Jan. 10 to abolish their 10-year-old agreement that restricts the recruiting of prospective March graduates before a specified date each year.Instead, companies and universities will separately create a voluntary guideline and each will respect the guideline of the other, according to officials of the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren). They also agreed that they will set up a working group to study recruiting methods in foreign countries as well as other medium-term issues, they said. The agreement will be formally approved as early as next week, they added.Companies created a moral charter, which says that they will disclose information on recruitment as quickly as possible and that they will inform students whether they are accepted or not only starting Oct. 1. Meanwhile, universities plan to establish an agreement among themselves that states that universities can send recommendations about students to companies only starting July 1, and that they should tell students not to visit companies before that date.