Sony freshmen salaries to diverge from Day One

Allure of lifetime 'membership' fades in race for Japan's top graduates

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Sony freshmen are shown a photo of the company's founders Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita during a welcoming ceremony in April 2019. (Photo courtesy of Sony)

EIKI HAYASHI, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Japanese employment is often compared to a membership model. New graduates enter the company not to fill a specific job role, but as if joining a club, where they are trained and molded into members who are only then assigned positions.

In this club, members do not get fired and are assured promotion as the years go by. The trade-off is that they receive relatively low, uniform starting pay.

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