Acquisition and development of human resources

Hiring policy

It may be true that the products of Hamamatsu Photonics are rarely seen in our everyday lives. But they are applied in a diverse range of fields, from familiar applications to leading-edge domains such as medicine and space science.

The 21st century has been called “the century of light.” The development of applications for photonics is accelerating and is expected to enrich our lives in many ways. At Hamamatsu Photonics, we develop light-related products and spread state-of-the-art photonics throughout the world, guided by the key phrases “pursuing unknown and unexplored realms,” “creating new industries” and “world-leading manufacturing.” We look forward to working with others who share our passion for this exciting field.

【Number of new employees by sex】

  FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Male 120 120 162
Female 17 18 27
Total 137 138 189

Hamamatsu Photonics is pleased to welcome outstanding recruits from every part of Japan, whether they are university or graduate-school graduates or graduates of technical junior colleges or high schools. At our workplaces, where development and manufacturing merge as one, our people apply both the education they received at school and the experience they gain on the job to create groundbreaking technologies.

【Number of new employees by educational level】

  FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
University or graduate school 74 69 100
Technical junior college 25 26
27
High school 38 43 62
Total 137 138 189

【Job turnover after 3 years with the Company* 】

FY2022: Approx. 2.1%
FY2021: Approx. 7.5%
FY2020: Approx. 1.9%

*Indicates the number of percentage of people who joined the Company three years earlier who are not with the Company today.

Our desired personnel and the everyone-a-researcher framework

The material Hamamatsu Photonics works with is light, whose nature we still do not fully understand. Naturally we prize the creativity and passion for tackling unknown frontiers of knowledge in each and every one of our employees. This conviction holds regardless of whether an employee’s degree is in the natural sciences or the humanities.

Each worker at Hamamatsu Photonics, whether employed in research, development or manufacturing, is engaged in his or her own unique theme, pursuing product development from a research or development frame of thinking. Production personnel, for example, pursue excellence in manufacturing not only by burnishing their understanding of manufacturing technology but also by applying an R&D mindset. We call this approach the “everyone-a-researcher framework.” Many of our most profitable products were developed on the production floor.

Educational and training programs

At Hamamatsu Photonics, our consistent perspective is that shop-floor experience provides far better learning opportunities than studying at a desk.

This conviction informs the approach we take in training new, career-track employees. These employees spend their first six months with Hamamatsu Photonics circulating among the Electron Tube Division, Solid State Division, System Division and Central Research Laboratory for training. In the process, trainees learn our style of working, acquire basic knowledge and build personal networks within the Company.

Putting weekends, holidays and after-hours periods to work, employees can take advantage of a varied lineup of in-house educational activities. All are free to participate on a voluntary basis. For these courses, employees must be self-starters, driven to learn by their own passion for knowledge. For example, Hamamatsu Photonics encourages employees to participate actively in English and Chinese conversation classes, supporting these studies by paying half of each course fee.