On Saturday, March 3, 2018, when job hunting for new graduates in 2019 was in full swing, 359 students from all over Japan attended the Food and Agriculture Job Hunting Summit held at Shinagawa Grand Hall (Minato-ku, Tokyo), where 33 companies and groups from the agriculture and food industry exhibited at booths. We report on the opinions of the participating students and companies, as well as the situation on the day of the event.
The Food and Agriculture Job Hunting Summit, a job hunting seminar for new graduates in 2019 organized by the Primary Industry Network, was held for the fifth consecutive year.
Japan's agriculture faces many problems, with the most notable one being a shortage of human resources. However, now there are companies offering jobs and employment environments that change the conventional image of agriculture, and an increasing number of students who want to create new value in agriculture. This seminar will be a meeting point between companies and new graduates who will be the core of the next generation of the agricultural industry. It will include a joint information session with exhibitor companies' booths, a lecture by special guest Shigeru Ishiba, member of the House of Representatives, and a networking event with young employees, and will convey the current situation and appeal of the agricultural industry from various angles to support the choice of "getting a job in the agricultural industry as a new graduate." Students from major agricultural universities, national and private universities across the country, and various other schools gathered, recording the largest number of attendees ever.
A similar job-hunting seminar is also planned for March 2019, aimed at new graduates in 2020.
[Voices of participating students (excerpts)]
■I was able to encounter agricultural companies that I would not have been able to come across on typical job hunting sites or at large-scale events, and I think it was a very efficient, meaningful and uniquely valuable day for students majoring in agriculture.
■I am a liberal arts student, but I participated because I was interested in agricultural production sites. I had no knowledge of agriculture, but I was able to get a lot of information by visiting many companies and receiving detailed company explanations. I would like to seriously consider working in the agricultural industry.
■I was nervous about job hunting, but this event helped me to find a company I wanted to work for. I think that being an industry-specific event, I was able to compare the individuality and differences of each company, even within the same industry.
■I had originally wanted to work in the livestock industry, and particularly wanted to raise livestock, but this event helped me find other jobs that I wanted to try. It gave me a new goal and made me want to work even harder on my job search.
■I learned about most of the companies through this event, and each company had a challenging attitude and an attitude of trying to create a new form of agriculture. I thought that there were many companies exhibiting that are changing the agricultural industry. I want to take on a challenge in a company like that, so it was inspiring.
■I participated because a company that I had been interested in after seeing the information on their website was exhibiting. I was able to actually talk to the employees and experience their personalities and enthusiasm first-hand, which made me want to work there even more.
[Voices from participating companies (excerpts)]
■Although the number of participating students was large, I was worried that the enthusiasm of the students would vary, but the students were all very enthusiastic and it was worth talking to them. In previous years, many of the students I met at this seminar have ended up joining the company, so I'm really happy that we can expect good things from them this year as well.
■The students were all from agricultural faculties or had an interest in agriculture, so it was easy to explain things to them. I usually go to on-campus information sessions at local universities that are not agricultural, but I felt that the students here were quite different.
On the day of the seminar, a special lecture was given by House of Representatives member Shigeru Ishiba, titled "Japan's Food and Agriculture Industry 50 Years from Now." After the lecture, many students raised their hands to ask questions.
Many of the students who listened to the lecture expressed their impressions, saying, "I was able to learn about Japanese agriculture from a broad perspective, and it has allowed me to think in a different way than before," "I now have a good understanding of the current situation and issues in agriculture. My questions were all answered carefully, so it was a valuable experience," and "It was a lecture that I would like to use not only in my job search, but in my future life."
English 
Japanese