RESEARCH REPORTOpinion Survey of Job-Hunting Students inGreater Tokyo on Company Selection 2024
<Detailed Report>
More than 80% find it attractive to work for a company that offers a satellite office, etc. for its employees
March 14, 2024

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Survey Overview
In Japan, with its low birth rate and aging society, it has become increasingly important and difficult for companies to attract young workers. The first step for companies
to be chosen by young people would be to understand their values and preferences. However, today’s job-hunting students, who have witnessed the social changes
brought about by the COVID pandemic and have experienced remote lectures by their universities, may have different behaviors and values than the older generation
when choosing the company they want to work for. Specifically, they may be more focused on the flexibility of working location and hours, in addition to traditional value
standards such as salary and job details.
Xymax Real Estate Institute (“Xymax REI”), which has conducted eight Greater Tokyo Office Worker Surveys since 2016 to analyze the changes in office workers’ work
styles and the workplace, has carried out its first survey of job-hunting students. By understanding the behaviors and values of job-hunting students, who are potential
office workers, in choosing the company they want to work for, we hope to provide clues to companies seeking to attract the ever-decreasing number of young workers.
Respondent attributes
PeriodTarget respondents

December 25–27, 2023 and January 24–February 4, 2024
Third-year university students and graduate students living inGreater Tokyo whose job-hunting status is “Employer has
been decided, and job-hunting has ended,” “Currently jobhunting,” or “Planning to start job hunting.”
Target universities: 51 universities located in Greater Tokyo,including Keio Univ., Sophia Univ., Tokyo Univ., Tokyo Univ.
of Foreign Studies, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tsukuba
Univ., Hitotsubashi Univ., Yokohama National Univ. andWaseda Univ., and graduate schools located in Greater Tokyo

No. of valid answers

364

MethodOnline survey

AgeGrade191 (0.3%)

2019 (5.2%)

Male140 (38.5%)

Female21224 (61.5%)

109 (29.9%)Tokyo

158 (43.4%)22122 (33.5%)

Kanagawa

73 (20.1%)

23

52 (14.3%)

Chiba

49 (13.5%)24

35 (9.6%)

25

21 (5.8%)

Place of Saitama
residence Ibaraki

265 (1.4%)

Tochigi

4 (1.1%)

3rd-year university

119 (32.7%)

Yamanashi

6 (1.6%)4th-year university or above

193 (53.0%)

Gunma

3 (0.8%)

1st-year master's degree

9 (2.5%)

GenderArts or Arts
2nd-year master's degree or above 39 (10.7%) sciences Sciencesmajor
1st-year doctoral program
1 (0.3%)Other
2nd-year doctoral program orabove

3 (0.8%)The percentage mix in the charts contained in this report is rounded to the first decimal place and, therefore, may not add up to 100%.

Employer has been decided, and jobhunting has ended

Jobhunting
Currently job hunting
statusPlanning to start job hunting

55 (15.1%)
16 (4.4%)

241 (66.2%)
120 (33.0%)
3 (0.8%)189 (51.9%)
121 (33.2%)
54 (14.8%)

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Main Findings

1.

Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company (From p.4)
●The top conditions that students consider important when choosing a company are “Salary and benefits” (71.4%) and “Job details” (67.0%). We also found that 20–

30% of job-hunting students place importance on flexibility in work styles, such as “Consideration for work-life balance” (33.5%), “Freedom in where to work (e.g.,teleworking)” (26.4%) and “Freedom in working hours (e.g., flex-time program)” (23.4%).

●

The work style closest to students’ ideal is “Hybrid work (switch between coming to the office and teleworking),” chosen by 67.0% of the students.

●

81.6% find it attractive (or somewhat attractive) to work for a company that offers a satellite office or other telework locations for its employees.

●The office conditions that many students consider important (or somewhat important) are “Located in a central office district with convenient access” and “Located in

an area close to home and requires only a short commute (e.g., suburban, residential).”●The top work style initiatives that students want their employer companies to have in place are “Flex-time program” (47.3%) and “Work-from-home allowance (e.g.,for supplies and utilities)” (40.7%). We also found that a certain percentage of students value advanced initiatives such as “Workation” (20.9%) and “Programs
allowing employees to work in the same company even if they make U-turns or I-turns in the future” (8.8%).

●

The top concern when choosing a company is “There may be a difference in work style flexibility depending on the place of assignment or supervisor (lottery ofassignment)” (46.2%), followed by “I may be forced to telework immediately after joining the company, resulting in insufficient training opportunities or being left tomy own devices” (35.2%), outweighing “I may be required to come to the office every day to do work that can be done by telework” (24.5%).

●

In terms of attitudes and values toward working, as much as 53.1% say they “value personal life more than work,” more than double the percentage who “valuework more than personal life” (24.2%). Furthermore, “Want to work for a company with job-based employment” (37.1%) outweighed “Want to work for a company
with membership-based employment” (23.9%).

2.

<Data (1)> Characteristics by Gender (From p.12)

3.

<Data (2)> Characteristics by Major (From p.16)

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies andValues When Choosing a Company

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a CompanyApprox. 30% value “Consideration for work-life balance” and “Freedom in where to work”
When we asked the students to choose frommultiple choices those they consider
important when choosing a company during
job-hunting, the top conditions were “Salaryand benefits” (71.4%) and “Job details”(67.0%) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Important Conditions When Choosing a Company During Job-Hunting

We also found that 20–30% of job-hunting
students place importance on flexibility inwork styles, such as “Consideration for worklife balance” (33.5%), “Freedom in where towork (e.g., teleworking)” (26.4%) and“Freedom in working hours (e.g., flex-timeprogram)” (23.4%).

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company

Hybrid work the ideal work style of approx. 70% of job-hunting students
When asked which of the three work styles(“Come to the office full time (Come to a fixedoffice every day),” “Hybrid work (Switch
between coming to the office andteleworking)” and “Telework full time
(Telework every day and basically do notcome to the office)”) was closest to their ideal,
the largest percentage of students (67.0%)
chose “Hybrid work” (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Ideal Work Style

In contrast, we found that “Come to the officefull time” (14.3%) and “Telework full time”(7.4%) were in the minority.

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company

More than 80% attracted to working for a company that offers a satellite office, etc.
Upon adopting telework, an increasing
number of companies have been signing up
for corporate satellite office services, inaddition to introducing work-from-homepolicies.

Figure 3: Percentage of Students Who Find It Attractive to Work for a Company That Offers aSatellite Office, etc. for Its Employees

After explaining telework location services
such as satellite offices and shared offices,
we asked the students if they would find it
attractive to work for a company that offers asatellite office or other telework locations for
its employees, and 81.6% said they agreed orsomewhat agreed (Figure 3).

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company“Central” and “suburban” office locations not binomial opposites, but both attractive
Figure 4 is the result of how important students
thought various office conditions were whenchoosing the company they wanted to work for.
The top conditions they considered “important(somewhat important)” were “Located in a central
office district with convenient access” (68.4%) and“Located in an area close to home and requires
only a short commute (e.g., suburban, residential)”(68.4%).

Figure 4: Important Office Conditions

This result indicates that the office location’s“convenient access” and “proximity to home” areboth attractive conditions for job-hunting students.
The majority of the students also value “Thecompany offers a workplace close to home or in
the provinces (satellite office) in addition to themain office” (54.4%), suggesting that the need fora hybrid office strategy is also growing among
young people.

A relatively large percentage of students also
placed importance on “A comfortable office withextensive office layouts and features (e.g., café,space for refreshing)” (59.9%), outweighing“Housed in a large or high-grade building (e.g.,many shopping facilities and restaurants in thebuilding)” (42.3%).

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company

High-in-demand work style initiatives: Flex-time program and work-from-home allowance
In terms of work style initiatives the students
wanted their employer companies to have inplace, the top initiatives were “Flex-timeprogram” (47.3%) and “Work-from-homeallowance(e.g., for supplies and utilities)”(40.7%).

Figure 5: Work Style Initiatives Students Want Employer Companies to Have in Place

We also found that a certain percentage ofstudents, although not a large percentage,value advanced initiatives such as“Workation” (20.9%) and “Programs allowing
employees to work in the same company
even if they make U-turns or I-turns in thefuture” (8.8%).

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company

Top concern “Lottery of assignment,” followed by “Being left to own devices due to teleworking
immediately after joining company”
Amid the proliferation of teleworking andother new ways of working, the top concern
students have when choosing a company
was “There may be a difference in work styleflexibility depending on the place ofassignment or supervisor (lottery ofassignment” (46.2%).

Figure 6: Concerns When Choosing a Company

This was followed by “I may be forced totelework immediately after joining thecompany, resulting in insufficient training
opportunities or being left to my own devices”(35.2%), which outweighed “I may berequired to come to the office every day to dowork that can be done by telework” (24.5%).
Although young people have high intentions
to telework (hybrid work), it does not meanthat they do not want to come to the office,but rather that they prefer an environment
where they can switch between coming to theoffice and teleworking as needed.

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1. Job-Hunting Students’ Tendencies and Values When Choosing a Company

More than 50% “value personal life more than work;” approx. 40% “want to work for a company with
job-based employment”
We asked students to rate, on a 5-point scale,
which of choices A and B was closer to theirattitudes and values toward working. The
results are shown in Figure 7. Choice B
represents more advanced or flexible
preferences than choice A.

Figure 7: Attitudes and Values Toward Working

The choice that had the highest total
percentage of “Close to B (Rather close to B)”
was “Value personal life more than work”(53.1%), more than double the percentage for“Value work more than personal life” (24.2%).
”Want to work for a company with job-based
employment” (37.1%) also outweighed theopposing “Want to work for a company withmembership employment” (23.9%).
In questions concerning the flexibility ofworking location and hours, more students
chose choice A, which is the moreconservative/fixed choice. In particular, “Wantto continue living in the same region” (57.7%)
significantly outnumbered the opposite choice,“I am not particular about which region to livein” (18.4%).

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2. <Data (1)> Characteristics by Gender

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2. <Data (1)> Characteristics by GenderMore women (85%) than men find it attractive to work for a company with a satellite office (Figure 10)
Figure 8: Important Conditions When Choosing a Company – By Gender

Figure 9: Ideal Work Style – By Gender

Figure 10: Percentage of Students Who Find It Attractive to Work fora Company That Offers a Satellite Office, etc. for Its Employees – ByGender13© Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

2. <Data (1)> Characteristics by Gender

Women demand more measures, but men have higher needs for digital tools (Figure 12)
Figure 11: Important Office Conditions – By Gender

Figure 12: Work Style Initiatives Students Want Employer
Companies to Have in Place – By Gender

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2. <Data (1)> Characteristics by Gender

50% of women have concerns over “Lottery of assignment” (Figure 13)
Figure 13: Concerns When Choosing a Company – By Gender

Figure 14: Attitudes and Values Toward Working – By Gender

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3. <Data (2)> Characteristics byArts/Sciences Major

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3. <Data (2)> Characteristics by Arts/Sciences Major

Arts major students are more interested in hybrid work and satellite offices (Figures 16 & 17)
Figure 15: Important Conditions When Choosing a Company During
Job Hunting – By Arts/Sciences Major

Figure 16: Ideal Work Style – By Arts/Sciences Major

Figure 17: Percentage of Students Who Find It Attractive to Work fora Company That Offers a Satellite Office, etc. for Its Employees – ByArts/Sciences Major

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3. <Data (2)> Characteristics by Arts/Sciences Major

Arts major students expect more from offices (Figure 18)
Figure 18: Important Office Conditions – By Arts/Sciences Major

Figure 19: Work Style Initiatives Students Want Employer
Companies to Have in Place – By Arts/Sciences Major

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3. <Data (2)> Characteristics by Arts/Sciences Major

35.8% of sciences major students are concerned that “I may be forced to telework immediately after
joining the company, resulting in insufficient training opportunities” (Figure 20)
Figure 20: Concerns When Choosing a Company – By Arts/Sciences Figure 21: Attitudes and Values Toward Working – By Arts/SciencesMajorMajor

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