Market Overview

The corporate training service market for FY2024 has grown by 4.6% from the preceding fiscal year to 585.8 billion yen, based on the sales at the businesses. Growth was fueled by rising demand for face-to-face group sessions, especially for onboarding new hires, as well as strong demand for online training services. The latter, which emerged as an alternative to in-person programs during the pandemic, proved especially attractive to small and mid-sized businesses that had not previously adopted training services.

From the viewpoint of training methods, classroom training, both open-enrollment programs and customized programs, remained the core of the market, supported by steady demand for new hire training and rank-based programs (targeted at young employees, mid-level staff, next generation leaders, middle managers, and executive candidates), as well as training for digital transformation (DX) personnel. Growing emphasis on human capital management that has become mandatory for disclosure in FY2022 (fiscal year ending in March 2023), has further driven investment in developing next-generation leaders. This, in turn, has boosted demand for training services that support succession planning and the preparation of future management and board-level talent.

Noteworthy Topics

Educational Investments Rise in Parallel with Companies’ Growing Focus on Human Capital Management

In recent years, growth in the corporate training services market has been driven by rising demand for new-hire training, fueled by companies’ strong appetite for recruitment. At the same time, a shrinking labor force has prompted enterprises to enhance the skills of existing employees and strengthen retention efforts, further reinforcing the need for training services.

Demand for both new-hire and employee development programs has expanded in step with an improving economy, reflected in larger recruitment and training budgets among financially strong companies. In addition, the growing emphasis on human capital management, encouraged by recent government initiatives, has supported market expansion further. The trend toward investing in employees to reinforce organizational strength, whether through upskilling current staff or preparing next-generation leaders, is expected to sustain steady demand for corporate training services.

Future Outlook

In accordance with an increasing number of companies tackling human capital management, demand for training services is expected to continue rising. The market size for FY2025 is forecasted to reach 613 billion yen, up by 4.6% of the size of the previous fiscal year.

Research Outline