Japan’s National Personnel Authority said the number of graduates from the University of Tokyo who passed the 2020 Public Service examination was 249, the lowest since 1998 when the data first became available.
Although the university still had the largest number of successful applicants of all universities, its figure was down by 58 from the previous year.
The Government Agency said the record drop came as students opted to work for private-sector businesses, where hiring interest remained strong, rather than the Government.
The total number of applicants for this year’s examination was 16,730. The number who passed fell by 81 from the previous year to 1,717.
Women accounted for 511, or 29.8 per cent, of all who passed the exam, down by 1.7 points from fiscal 2019, when the ratio hit a record high.
Of the successful applicants from other leading universities, 131 were from Kyoto University, 90 from Waseda University and 69 from Hokkaido University.
More than half of the successful candidates were from national universities.
The announcement was made two months later than initially planned because the examination’s first-stage test was postponed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Although Government Ministries and Agencies usually hold interviews with successful applicants, the interviews for this year’s employment process were held before the results were announced due to the test postponement.
Government bodies plan to pick who to employ shortly.
Tokyo, 23 August 2020
