Japanese launch job hunt rallies

Cheerleaders are being used to drum up enthusiasm among students poised to enter the jobs market in Tokyo.

Rallies can be used to pump up people's enthusiasm for all kinds of things but here in Japan schools and colleges are drafting in teams of cheerleaders to boost enthusiasm among students about to enter the jobs market.

University students in the world's second-largest economy are waking up to the prospect of companies cutting graduate recruitment.

Those attending this student job hunters' pep rally in Tokyo have mixed feelings.

SOUNDBITE: Narumi Okawa, student, saying (Japanese):

"This rally really got me excited. I really want to get a job soon."

SOUNDBITE: Yoshikazu Takahashi, student, saying (Japanese):

"I'm a bit worried because we're in this deep recession and I often hear companies are hiring fewer people while more people are applying to particular firms."

After four years of aggressive hiring the tide is turning dramatically and unpleasantly for Japan's graduates.

Job offers for college graduates in 2009 are down nearly 1.5 per cent on last year, the first drop in five years.

More than 300 final year students with job offers saw them withdrawn or at risk of being revoked because of the economic downturn.

Desperate times call for desperate measures - and a spell of hearty cheering at a job hunters' rally might at least keep their spirits up while they search for work.

Paul Chapman, Reuters