April is a month for new starts and new opportunities, particularly among workers in Japan.

Those starting new school or in a new company always experience mixed feelings of anticipation and nervousness.

Shinko Juki (@shinkojuki) is a company that handles construction machinery equipment rentals. Like many other companies, they also had an orientation for their new employees on April 1st.

They put up a few board signs at the orientation site that looked like construction signs commonly seen at any construction site. But let’s take a closer look...

"Today is orientation day!"

Hm…? This isn’t a construction sign, but actually a sign for the new employees!

Let’s zoom in a little bit more. First, we’ll take a closer look at the board on the left.

The sign was altered from using the phrase “Sorry for the inconvenience”, a common sign at a construction site, to “Expecting you with anticipation” on the board designed just like a construction sign, but instead of “Construction site”, “Orientation site” is also written on the board!

Now we are onto the second board placed on the right. The male character dressed in a construction uniform is something you’d see in almost every construction sign, but turned out, it is...

A welcoming message from the older peers; “Dear new employees, please always have willingness to learn, persistence and a humor” is written on the board!

There have been many positive comments for this post.

You can bet these welcoming boards helped the new employees feelings more relaxed on their first day!