Job Application Requirements and Inequalities: Insights from LGBTQ Job Seekers in Japan

Past research on recruitment and hiring inequalities have focused on how work organizations selectively recruit certain workers and make biased decisions in callbacks and job offers. However, employer requirements for job applications and interviews also create inequalities by preventing certain workers from completing applications and staying in the applicant pool. The present study extends this literature by focusing on unique conventions of application and interview procedures in Japan and examining the implications for LGBTQ prospective graduates as a socially marginalized job-seeker group. Analysis of in-depth interview data shows that LGBTQ people’s job search and career prospects are constrained by three aspects of application and interview conventions in Japan—an annual cycle schedule, an early start of the recruitment season, and use of standard questions in applications and interviews. Other national conditions, such as gender stratification in the labor market and a lack of legal protections of LGBTQ workers, endorse this process. Overall, these results extend the existing knowledge on recruitment and hiring inequalities by showing that the national conventions of application and interview procedures create unique patterns of inequalities in the country.