Usage patterns 優ゆう 秀しゅう な 〈 人じん 材ざい 〉 excellent/talented personnel
This company has many talented people.
〈 人じん 材ざい 〉 を 確かく 保ほ する to secure/retain talent
Securing talented people isn't easy.
〈 人じん 材ざい 〉 を 発はっ 掘くつ する to discover/scout talent
We conducted repeated interviews to discover new talent.
〈 場ば 所しょ 〉 に 〈 人じん 材ざい 〉 が 集あつ まる talent gathers (at a place/company)
A lot of talented people have gathered at that company.
Related words· 8 逸材 highlights an exceptionally gifted individual, while 人材 is the broader, more common term for any capable person or personnel resource.
人員 is a neutral term for staff headcount or numbers, whereas 人材 emphasizes people's ability or value as a resource.
人手 refers simply to the manpower or hands needed for work, without the connotation of talent that 人材 carries.
人材 specifically means talented people or human resources, whereas 材 alone is a more abstract term for innate talent.
Show 4 more Show fewer 人材 means a talented person or human resource in general, while 戦力 in this sense stresses that person's concrete value as a contributor to success.
人材 specifically means a talented person valuable to an organization, while 人物 more broadly can mean 'a person' or 'someone of note.'
人材 refers to talented or valuable human resources in a broader organizational sense, while 働き手 in this sense focuses on someone's practical productivity and hands-on ability.
人材 emphasizes a person's talent or value as a human resource, while 要員 simply denotes someone assigned to fill a needed role.
Don't confuse with 人物 just means 'a person' or 'figure' with no implication of skill, while 人材 specifically denotes someone valued for their ability.
人材 means the talented people or human resources themselves, while 人事 refers to the administrative affairs and decisions concerning those people.
Word family· 11 shortage of talented people; shortfall in human resources
personnel exchange; people-to-people exchange
effective use of human resources; personnel utilization
temporary staffing; temp agency dispatch
selection for high office; appointment of talented people to higher positions
Show 5 more Show fewer human resources training; personnel development
job bank; talent pool
human resources development; personnel development; career development
highly skilled professional; highly talented personnel
temporary employment agency; staffing agency; temp agency
See all 11 in Explore →
Written forms 人じん 材ざい Usage 99%
Standard kanji spelling; high-frequency in news and business contexts.
人じん 財ざい Usage 1%
irregular kanji usage
Irregular kanji usage sometimes seen in HR contexts to emphasize people as assets (財 = wealth), but not standard.
Etymology Compound of 人 (person) and 材 (material, timber). The meaning evolved from 'raw material of people' to 'capable person' and later 'human resources' in modern business usage.
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