A recent survey amongst Japanese third year university students indicates that relatively few aim to join the well known companies producing the export products “made in Japan” that, economically speaking, put the country on the world map during the 20th century.

According to the list published in Nihon Keizai Shimbun (2009-02-23), five of the top ten companies that students would like to work for were banks or insurances. There were also one airline (All Nippon Airways, #3), one travel agency (JTB, #5) and two railway companies.

Only one electronics company made it into the top ten (Panasonic at #4, unchanged from 2008) and no car manufacturer at all. The ranking clearly reflects the hit that Japan’s export industries have taken during the global economic downturn. Industrial icons such as Toyota (#46), Honda (#60), Sony (#22), Sharp (#37) dropped sharply from last year’s survey, when three of these were in the top 10 – Toyota (#3), Sony (#5) and Sharp (#6) while Honda at least made #22 then.

As an engineer I may be a bit biased, but I can’t help feeling sad when companies that make stuff for customers worldwide are seen as less interesting to work for than companies that domestically move money around.

Japan depends almost entirely on imports for primary energy resources and domestically produces little more than one third of the food that the Japanese eat. It will always have to depend on exports to pay for vital imports. The more bright minds that concentrate on competing globally, the better for the country.