It sounds to me like a measure of conformity, because surely you now have to choose from a set of recommended handwriting styles that are considered "acceptable". By straying out of the standards, you're risking the subjective appreciation of the interviewer.

Do they test you on your handwriting during the interview to make sure that you wrote your resume? If they do, then it implies that they truly think that they can see something in how someone writes. If they don't then why not let the machine do it?

>It sounds to me like a measure of conformity,

yes. people need to realize if they want to work/live in japan stuff like this comes with the territory.

And France, believe it or not. Somehow the notion that penmanship, under professional scrutiny, can reveal enough about a person to influence a job interview or mental health wormed its way into French (probably a few other countries as well) culture and never apparently left. Despite having no or little scientific backing.

Then again, Americans seem to love personality tests like the Myers-Briggs in a similar way despite equally strong criticism of their utility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphology

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22198554

I dunno i think its kinda cool. its not necessarily a bad thing to hold people to higher standards and have expectations of excellence in everything you do. that is part of the reason japan is such a nice place.

This sounds awful. I have terrible handwriting, and handwriting skills are entirely non-essential in my line of work. People would be tossing my resume because it's hard to read, even though it has no bearing on my ability to do the work I'm applying for.

sounds like japan may not be the place for you then

You can get by in Japan as a foreigner no problem without ever having to hand write a resume, you just have to seek out the right companies.

I imagine it's a lot harder to avoid as a Japanese citizen.

yeah because they genuinely have lower expectations of you as a foreigner

I'm curious how well this works for evaluating physicians

I guess it sort of works for surgeons