Important kanji on job applications

There may be a lot of hardships in getting a job in a foreign country, and reading kanji on an online job application would be definitely one of them. In this article, I am going to explain all the kanji that are on most online job applications. 

  • 応募情報の入力、入力内容の確認、応募完了

You will often see these three phrases with arrows connecting each other near the top of an application page. The phrases and arrows explain how the application process is going to proceed. The first one means “input of an applicant’s information,” the second one “confirmation of the information,” and the last one “application completed.”

  • 氏名

This means a full name. There should be two boxes underneath with the kanji 姓 and 名. put your last name in the 姓 box and your first name in 名.

  • 生年月日

This is your birthday. 年 means years, so depending on the form, either type in your birth year or click a button and select the year when you were born. Likewise, type in or click a button to fill your birth month for 月 and birthday for 日.

  • 性別

Your sex. If you are a man, select 男, and select 女 if you are a woman. For those of you who do not fall into either category, I am sorry but Japan is behind in this subject. And most of the time selecting either sex is a requirement in order to go to the next step, so please just select either. If you get the job or advanced to an interview, you can tell your employer about it.

  • 電話番号

Your phone number. You can put the number of either your house phone or cell phone. Sometimes a cell phone number is required.

  • メールアドレス

Well, this is not kanji, but it is also an important keyword. This is your email address. Usually they ask you to type your email address twice to confirm it. So if you see two boxes next to each other, just put the same email address in both.

  • 現在の職業

This is your current occupation. There are usually occupations to choose from, which is shown below:

  • 高校生: high school student
  • 大学生: undergraduate student
  • 大学院生: graduate student
  • 短大生: junior college student
  • 専門学校生: vocational college student
  • 主婦・主夫: stay-at-home spouse
  • 正社員: full-time worker
  • 契約社員: contract worker
  • 派遣社員: haken (temp) worker
  • アルバイト・パート: part-time worker
  • 無職: no job
  • その他: other
  • 住所

This means your address. Unlike in America, addresses are written from the bigger area to smaller one. For example, in America you write a state name after a town name, but in Japan you would write it backwards.

  • 郵便番号: zip code
  • 都道府県: prefecture
  • 市区町村: city, town, village
  • 番地: street address
  • 建物名: building name
  • 利用規約に同意

This means “agree to the terms of service.” Check a small box to show that you agree to the terms of service in order to move on to the next step.

If you go to the 入力内容の確認 page, make sure all the information you put in is correct and click a button saying something like “この内容で応募する” which means “apply with this information.” If you click the button, the 応募完了 page appears with a message like “ご応募ありがとうございました” which is “thank you for applying.” Yay, you are done applying for a job!

Job applications are not scary any more

Now you know what you are supposed to put in each section. There is nothing to be scared about when applying for jobs online, right? By the way, even though I explained kanji that are used on most applications, there may be some kanji that are not mentioned here. If you find any kanji that you cannot read and is not explained in this article, please comment and let us help you!