University - Graduation

Hello everybody =)
My Jfriend told me that he has to find a job during this time.
However, he'll graduate next year, so I thought it was kind of too early to find a job (still one more year).

Do Japanese ppl have to find a job very soon before they graduate or it just him *head scratching*?

Hrmm, I think it depends what type of job we're talking about. I'm studying Finance so I'll use that as an example. I know most full time on campus recruiting happens during the fall semester of senior year although internship recruiting happens in Spring in North America (whereas I believe it's Fall for Asia). Many juniors get full time offers after their summer internships too so I don't think it's too early. I guess it really depends on the job market. It never hurts to start looking early though :D.

In Japan, university students search for jobs so that they can start immediately upon graduation - graduating in late March then starting work on April 1st.

As a custom, job hunting starts quite early - he is just finishing up his junior year soon (school year in Japan ending in March), and starting his senior/final year this coming April? That sounds about right for everyone.

It used to be (many years ago) that the job hunting could officially begin (or corporations could start hiring activities officially) in July of senior year (for those graduating March of the following year), but that has been moved up, and yes, we do read in the newspapers about juniors looking for jobs now.

I suppose it's been like this because many Japanese corporations want to hire new graduates upon graduation, so they get newcomers only in April, and (unlike in some other countries) do not hire throughout the year.

It depends on what they are majoring in, but as far as I know, it's pretty common to start job hunting around this time of a year. I'm a senior student in Japan, and I also started hunting for a job when I was a junior student (in my case, I started on October 2008, and believe it or not, I found a job last October. It took a year). Again, it all depends on your major, but I can say your friend is normal.