The Present Condition and Challenges Facing Career Support in Japanese Companies

Japan\u27s professional career support began with public vocational training and moved on to the promotion of each company having its own career development. Nowadays，due to the revision of labor laws in 2001, both government and companies are prepared to support workers\u27 career development. This paper will examine the present situation of career development support in Japanese companies through three different cases. Regarding the career education system in Japan, personnel departments and bosses used to have a strong influence on their employees career development. But now the focus has shifted to the employee\u27s independent and autonomous career development by employees. The company\u27s role is to support them. Various methods have been studied and attempted as a means of supporting individual career development, as follows： －Personnel departments\u27 initiative to establish a new system.－The Placing of career counseling offices where professional career consultants work. －Integrating career support and mental care． －Outsourcing to EAP. We can recognize the following common points from the study of three companies\u27 cases:1) Top management leadership is necessary for promoting an employee\u27s initiative development.2) Much depends on the ability of the career consultant3) Career support and mental care are closely related. 4) It is difficult to promote enlightening activities for career support within a company.5) Good teamwork between the personnel department and the career consultant is important. Although career development support does not have a long history, it seems to be a good method for vitalizing Japanese companies. We need to continue further investigation and research in this area