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The Natural Limitations of the Specialist HR Career in Japan

Posted: 19.01.10

In many ways, the Japan HR market is not dissimilar to any other in the region: when a company is on the look-out for a senior HR specialist, it's always a surprise to discover how rare they are to find on the market. Promising leaders in Recruitment can often get 'burnt out' by a certain stage in their career, because the repetitive demands of the role do not lessen over time, and the variety of a Generalist HR career can seem very appealing. Compensation & Benefits Directors tend to stay the course in their specialisation, but they become very well looked-after by their employers and do not seek external opportunities lightly. And Talent Management and OD professionals tend to look for more consulting opportunities once they reach a certain seniority, where they can specialise in very niche areas such as leadership coaching or change management across a number of companies and industries rather than continue in a more corporate career.

In the case of Japan, there are a number of extra factors that can also play a contributory part in making the specialist HR career path seem less appealing or indeed less available. We discuss three of these below.

This is an excerpt. For the full press release, please download the PDF version below.