(FORTUNE Magazine) – Which companies do Japanese college students want to work for most? In a poll of 18,000 undergraduates, the top choice was Sony, followed by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, NEC, Matsushita Electric Industrial, and Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance. Only two foreign companies ranked among the 100 most desired: IBM Japan, which was No. 16, and Arthur Andersen, the accounting and consulting firm, No. 92. A common reason for the choices: a secure job at a prestigious company. Graduation does not come till next March, but some corporate recruiters have already broken their own deadline in the pursuit of the brightest students. Companies post notices in colleges announcing job opportunities and set a date when they will begin seminars and interviews. But, as usual, many companies cheated this year's August 1 starting time. They met with students before then to schedule interviews and even overseas trips that will keep a prized prospect from getting together with competitors. The Recruit Research survey underscored Japan's sexism in the workplace, where women are more likely to get clerical jobs while their male counterparts get a chance to enter the executive ranks. The 6,000 female students in the poll listed Japan's two airlines as their favorite choice. Reason: Both carriers use only college grads as flight attendants, which would at least give the coeds an opportunity to travel and see the world. That's still not enough for a growing number of educated women. Akemi Mae, 22, an international relations major at Tokyo's Tsuda College, for example, went to interviews with a Tokyo department store and came away confident that the company would offer her an entry-level job. Mae says that her long-term career goal is to run her own department. Big corporations pay college graduates an average starting salary of $23,000 a year.