Many of the careers most widely coveted by Japanese university students are related to the tourism industry, automakers and ad agencies, a recent survey suggests.
Travel agent JTB Corp. was the most popular company, followed by Japan Airlines System Corp. and ad agency Hakuhodo Inc. All Nippon Airways placed fourth in the poll, conducted by the Works Institute, an arm of the job-placement magazine publisher Recruit Co.
Toyota Motor Corp. ranked sixth, Honda Motor Co. was ninth and Dentsu Inc. placed seventh.
"The companies that occupied the higher ranks on the list are those whose names can easily conjure up the image of job duties there," an official of the Works Institute said.
"The factors to which undergraduates attach importance in selecting companies are that duties at the companies are easy to understand and the belief that the companies will allow them to engage in what they want to do," the official added.
Automakers were popular among graduate students studying math or science, according to another survey.
Toyota was the most popular firm on the list, followed by Honda. Nissan Motor Co. ranked fifth.
The graduate students also cited firms such as Sony Corp., Canon Inc. and IBM Japan Ltd., which placed third, fourth and sixth, respectively. Two think tanks broke into the list with Nomura Research Institute Ltd. and Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc., which tied for eighth place.
The polls were conducted between mid-February and early March and covered a total of 21,700 university undergraduates and graduate students planning to graduate next March.