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With the start of a new fiscal year on April 1st, many Japanese companies hold formal entrance ceremonies to welcome new graduates and sometimes also mid-career hires newly joining their ranks.
For new graduates, these ceremonies are important as it marks the start of their working lives. It's surely a very sobering experience to participate in one side by side with their new colleagues.
An unconventional entrance ceremony
On March 31st, 2022, the Toba Aquarium (@TOBA_AQUARIUM) in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, held its company entrance ceremony.
When Japanese people think of company entrance ceremonies, they probably imagine a hall or conference room with rows of new employees dressed in suits, attentively listening to a congratulatory speech from the president and a designated new employee representative.
Image for illustrative purposes | Fast&Slow, © PIXTA
However, the scene at the entrance ceremony posted by Toba Aquarium's Twitter account was beyond most users' imaginations:
"We held an underwater entrance ceremony again this year and welcomed four new caretakers, so please look forward to their future activities! (...)"
Toba Aquarium held their ceremony inside a tank!
Appropriately enough, they call it the 水中入社式 suichū nyūsha shiki, or "Underwater Company Entrance Ceremony." New employees assigned to the Breeding and Research Department receive their certificates of appointment underwater in the tank, fully clothed not in wetsuits but in business suits and wearing oxygen tanks on their backs.
You can view other images on their website here and watch a video of the ceremony below. (The participants appear in the tank from around 1:47):
According to Toba Aquarium, the Underwater Company Entrance Ceremony has been held since 2006 as a way to welcome new employees assigned to the Breeding and Research Department.
The innovative ceremony attracted a lot of attention on the Internet, with comments such as "How cool is this!" "I love it!" as well as comments from those who were there saying that they were moved to witness the event.
What a way to literally dive into your new job!
The new employees who took part in this unique ceremony will surely have a lot of valuable experiences ahead of them at Toba Aquarium!