Where does your field of study fit into your work? Distribution layout

Switch between response sets to explore the relationship between the field studied and fields related to work. If someone does not rank their field studied first, might they still name it among the other fields related to their work? Where do those responses appear?

“Other selected fields” excludes the first-ranked field from each person’s work responses. A respondent may have zero, one or two remaining fields. These are not ranked second and third. This view also includes other fields selected by people whose first-ranked field matches what they studied.

“People shown” counts each person once if they appear in at least one stem under the selected conditions. “Total selections shown” sums the stem counts. “With a matching field studied” counts people whose selected work fields include the field they studied, placing them on the diagonal. The same person may appear both on and off the diagonal. The share of people with a match and the diagonal’s share of total selections are different quantities.

People with no additional work fields remain in the eligible population and in the breakdown by zero, one or two additional fields. The starting population is 64,544 respondents with an educational field response. The chart plots pairings of specific fields numbered 1–298 on both axes. Pairings involving “Other” or “None” are outside the chart. A person may have both plotted and unplotted pairings. Changing the response set can also change which people appear, so read the distinct counts alongside total selections and the outside-chart breakdown.

The chart uses self-reported responses from 2025. They reflect which fields respondents consider relevant to their current work, but do not directly measure their reasons, psychology, intervening career history or paths of change. A match or mismatch on the diagonal does not measure the value of learning or career success.

Location filters cover residence, workplace, the institution for the highest education level, and high school. All locations includes overseas responses and other categories. For postgraduate respondents, the university / final institution location is not their undergraduate location. Age cutoffs are cumulative and exclude the boundary age; they compare different people.

The four groups, field order, colors and translucent stems follow the original layout. Coordinate distance does not measure similarity of knowledge. Logarithmic height ratios are not count ratios. Select a stem or dot to read the exact count. We have not adjusted for respondent composition or extrapolated to the national population.

Source: Cabinet Office of Japan, e-CSTI human resources open data, p4ds2025 v1.0. Prepared by Rokugeisha. Japanese version published on October 15, 2026.

Field names are Rokugeisha’s translations, not official Cabinet Office translations. The field reference provides the original Japanese labels.