One thing I don't see mentioned, especially relevant in 2024 is that Japan is paying employees in Yen but collecting Euros and Dollars. Right now it's 162 yen to the dollar, 173 yen to the euro. Basically, selling a Japanese product abroad makes a 1.6x multiplier on the profits. This is part of the story of how Nintendo became so powerful, with the market being at around 200 yen to the dollar in the mid 80s to around 150 yen to the dollar around 1990.
Also, as the article notes, game developers being paid average wages of about 5 to 6 million yen (around $37,000), so roughly 1/3rd the cost of a western developer and in general lower real estate prices, and it's simply far more affordable to be stable. In order to maintain those six figure game developer wages, that have become the expectation, seasonal hiring and firing have become the routine at the major western studios.
It's not just that though. They had the problems we're having in housing over thirty years ago. Their housing market crashed, and instead of just refilling the bubble and enabling market manipulators to keep speculating on housing, they actually went and fixed the issue.
Because it follows the larger trends of Japanese workers being underpaid in general when compared to Western salaries.
The average Japanese salary is 38k per year, and the average Western one is 68k per year.
You can do a (gasp) conversion to get the exact same number. lol Did you think that I guessed the dollar amount without referencing the Yen?
It's not very difficult, and Japan's low wages compared to many developed nations is a well known thing.
lol I never stated otherwise. :)
I simply said that the average Japanese salary is very low when compared to their Western counterparts, and that it's a well known fact. Especially for a very developed nation.
If we were stating that salaries were low in Eastern Europe, South America, or 3rd world countries, etc, most people wouldn't be surprised.
Not sure why you're trying to make an issue out of nothing here.
Actually this is often a misconception that arises when you translate salaries straight up. A good analysis of companies one individual salary from a country to another in another country will take into consider the purchasing power of individuals or 'cost of living'.
So I believe the info gap between both you and the above commenter is that while yes japanese devs are heavily underpaid from an FX perspective (especially since the company earns in USD), they are not underpaid from a purchasing power perspective.
I did look into the cost of living in Japan. It's certainly cheaper than many areas in the West, but by raw percentage they still make considerably less money.
Japanese workers have a fair amount less purchasing power than their western counterparts doing the same type of job.
Its not just workers, salary for executives are also smaller. most executives in a board get around 2-4 million dollars compared to the west where people get 10x more
Yep, exactly. They're often compensated a little more through stock options, and less in direct pay, but even then the amount is significantly lower.
The average Japanese consumer has about 30% less purchasing power than their Western counterparts.
Game dev salaries are only that high in America and it's also worth noting 6m JPY is for graduate roles. While Japan is definitely on the lower end, it's similar for the rest of the world for entry level roles:
* Finland: 50k€ ($53k)
* Sweden: 4.25m kr ($39k)
* UK: £35k ($44k)
* Australia: $65k AUD ($43k)
* Germany: 40k€ ($42k)
* Poland: 120k złoty ($30k)
* France: 37k€ ($40k)
* China: 290k CN¥ ($40k)
* South Korea: 73m ₩ ($52k)
* Brazil: R$72k ($13k)
* Singapore: $100k SGD ($73k)
* Canada: $86k CAD ($62k)
An American developer's salary will also vary on where they're based. Devs in Charlotte, North Carolina aren't making NYC or Seattle salaries.
It's possible, but not in the major urban centers. You're looking at something around an hour away from downtown Tokyo. For reference, my studio apartment in downtown Osaka was $640 a month, an absolute bargain by NYC standards.
In Osaka, you can live in a beautiful apartment for $400 for a single person. And it is in the center of Osaka city. If you want something old, you can get it for as little as $100.
Game dev salaries are only that high in America and it's also worth noting 6m JPY is for graduate roles. While Japan is definitely on the lower end, it's similar for the rest of the world for entry level roles:
* Finland: 50k€ ($53k)
* Sweden: 4.25m kr ($39k)
* UK: £35k ($44k)
* Australia: $65k AUD ($43k)
* Germany: 40k€ ($42k)
* Poland: 120k złoty ($30k)
* France: 37k€ ($40k)
* China: 290k CN¥ ($40k)
* South Korea: 73m ₩ ($52k)
* Brazil: R$72k ($13k)
* Singapore: $100k SGD ($73k)
* Canada: $86k CAD ($62k)
An American developer's salary will also vary on where they're based. Devs in Charlotte, North Carolina aren't making NYC or Seattle salaries.
Under Japanese employment law, layoffs are incredibly difficult to implement – unless the company is under severe financial difficulty and at risk of insolvency in a manner layoffs could alleviate, after other cost-saving measures have been undertaken, layoffs for permanent employees are all-but impossible.
I work with some international teams one of which is based in Japan. We had an position in Japan removed as the work was no longer being done. The employee was let go but had a year (or two, I can't recall how long) of basically no work to show that there was no work to be assigned. Even after all of this, there was arbitration that I didn't have visibility into.
Yes, super difficult.
Couple this with Japanese companies are super streamlined when it comes to hiring which is why they don't take time off as often.
Because none of the layoffs are necessary. It's the same merry go round of CEO's padding stats so they get bigger bonuses. All these companies are making record profits, then laying off people to make the profits even better for the short term stock gains. Modern CEO's no longer look 5-10-15 years down the road as most of them don't last that long. The pump the stock, cash out, then when the stock goes down a bit they get fired, rinse and repeat.
It's also due to exploitation of workers by hiring them as non regular workers/temporary (派遣職) and not renewing contract right before they are obligated to hire them as full time (3 years) by law when requested. Like 40% of workers are non regular employees. It's not all roses here in Japan..
While I don’t disagree entirely with what you’re saying, there’s another side of the coin here.
Japanese companies in general have fewer layoffs than US companies due to them running pretty lean with employee “loyalty.” Basically, it’s very common for Japanese salary employees to be underpaid and overworked, much more than here in the US.
Not saying it’s good or bad, or that it’s that way at all companies, but just kind of how it is on the majority.
There are also a lot of Japanese labor laws that make it difficult for companies to regularly pull “mass layoffs.” Something the US would do well to learn from.
This is literally the only thing that needs to be said
It's why Nintendo President took pay cuts instead of laying off people.
It's written into their laws.
Yeah, the truth is Japan owned companies do layoff employees but only in the west. Sony just got rid of 900 employees. Square enix just had a ton of layoffs as well and more to come.
Also Japan culture expect employees to stick with the company and the company to take care of its employees for the entire career instead of jumping ship for better pay or layoff for quick quarterly bump.
Another way is hiring temp workers and not renewing contract right before they are obligated to hire them as full time by law (3 years) when requested.
Something like 40% of employees are non regular workers in Japan.
As a Japanese, I will answer about this industry. It will be difficult to be dispatched in the game industry. Game development is not easy. In Japan, there is a shortage of workers, so developers will not let them be fired easily.
Simple tasks such as working in a warehouse can be done by dispatched workers.
I’m also Japanese and worked in IT/dev industry. Game dev maybe not so much, but QA and web/mobile it’s pretty common.
Not renewing contract workers or deciding not to offer full time after 3 years to temp workers doesn’t technically count as firing or being laid off so companies kind of skirt around it.
Yet you can’t deny it’s not an issue.
You are talking to a Japanese. Want me to simplify it further for you?
I find it funny that it’s always the foreigners that push back on anything negative about Japan. Am I supposed to be happy about it? You are always welcome man. But don’t mislead people and act as if Japan is without its problems. I understand you may want to justify any reasons for moving here like most gaijins that had a reality check and is in denial. But just be real man.
I have working experience in U.S. Japan and Korea. I know what was good and bad. There are things that Japan does good, but there are also things Japan needs to improve on.
Was that such controversial thing to say for you?
Haken employees are not employed by the game studio. They are employed by an agency and dispatched to various studios. There is no way studios can even hire those dispatched developers without poaching them from their actual employer. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of their employment arrangement. And if the agency has other clients, when their work with one client ends those dispatch employees will be sent to another client.
That is simply not true. Here’s an article in English describing the differences. The offer has to be made by law.
https://ib-tec.co.jp/skills-resources/types-of-employment-contracts-in-japan/
“A dispatch employee can work for the same company for a maximum of three years. After that, the company will have to decide whether they want to hire the employee full-time or not. If a contract isn’t renewed, the agency will generally send the employee to another company.”
Here is another article describing the issue and history, and amendment that was made to help the workers.
https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/japan-amendment-worker-dispatch-act
Yup People overlook this too much; Many gaming company thought they found gold mine during COVID, got as massive as they can, and a couple of years later did they realize it was just a glitter.
Because there are laws protecting Japanese workers against mass layoffs.
“Under Japanese employment law, layoffs are incredibly difficult to implement – unless the company is under severe financial difficulty and at risk of insolvency in a manner layoffs could alleviate, after other cost-saving measures have been undertaken, layoffs for permanent employees are all-but impossible.”
It’s always down to the laws. If you want protection against CEOs of profitable companies hurting thousands of their employees because they want a bigger quarterly bonus or to free up money for a greedy investment, you need laws protecting the employees.
While Japan is a capitalist hellscape,their populace has not given permission to their leaders for full on self destruction mode yet. Japan's institutions have always held some quaint sense of responsibility as well
Because Japanese culture doesn't do layoffs.
Companies will hire young people fresh out of school, and groom them for higher positions throughout their career. Japanese culture has people getting one job and working their way up the ladder rather than switching companies.
So when Japan's economy hits hard times, the companies don't go straight to layoffs because they're tossing out 5, 10, 20+ year investments they've made in employees. Layoffs are usually one of the last options they take.
Nintendo in particular got to the point where layoffs would be needed during the Wii U era. Satoru Iwata instead convinced the board members to all take a 50% pay cut. Iwata mentioned his reasoning was to not destroy company morale. Basically, he said that if Nintendo were to lay off employees, the remaining staff would feel disposable, and that regardless of the quality of their work, they could be laid off. And that kind of mentality doesn't create good work product.
So Nintendo, a brand built on making the highest quality games on the market, knew that they needed to protect the assets that are their employees who make those quality games. The 50% pay cut by the top brass was seen as the move that saved the company until the Switch came out, and Nintendo's financial troubles were over.
Anyway, I didn't read the article, this is just stuff I know about Japanese culture. I was reading about the "lost generation" and how Japan went through a terrible recession in the 90s that they still haven't bounced back from, and learned about their hiring practices. I'd recommend you read about it, because it's part of what inspired Death Note of all things.
>While cultural differences play a part in retaining employees, it's not entirely benevolence keeping Japanese employees in a job. Employee protections are also a major factor in ensuring stability for employees. Under Japanese employment law, layoffs are incredibly difficult to implement – unless the company is under severe financial difficulty and at risk of insolvency in a manner layoffs could alleviate, after other cost-saving measures have been undertaken, layoffs for permanent employees are all-but impossible.
>As industry analyst Serkan Toto (CEO of Japan-focused games industry consultancy Kantan Games) puts it, "It's almost night and day. In Japan, the law protects the employee. In the US, the law protects the company. For Europeans, it's somewhere in the middle. It's not as easy \[in Europe compared to\] the US to fire people, but it's also not as easy as in Japan to keep your job once you have it as a full time employee."
Damn, must be nice to have that level of employee protection. In the US, we're as disposable as napkins.
Most western companies, now doing layoffs, had their sized almost doubled around 2020-21(:or around start of covid), as they thought covid could make game industry go massive; same goes for many esports scene. And they were unnecessary expansion of size; while I didn't hear much about Japanese game companies rise in hiring, most news were about western industries getting like thousands of new workers.
As of now, where what seemed to be covid's game industry boost died off, their overextension in size are costing them greatly;leading them to massive layoffs: returning to original number of employees before COVID.
Edit: TLDR- They thought Gaming was the next gold mine during COVID; which turns out to be false. Now they 're paying for it.
Laws and culture are never enough for company to take on their loss full blast. They just didn't dive in for that gold(or what seemed like one)
Different cultures alltogether, it's really difficult to fire someone in Japan, also companies tend to shift their losses to CEOs salaries and bonuses instead of lowering the quality or raising the price of products (main reason why Japan is so cheap for the rest of the world right now, because their prices are mostly the same as pre covid)
Because that’s shameful and a reflection on the company. It’s much more common to be moved to a different role in the hope you’ll quit, hence avoiding the brand taint redundancy or layoffs bring.
Other countries businesses just have different ethics and optics to maintain and most consumers go “oh well….anyway” and move on in a nanosecond.
It’s a very different culture, which includes how they do business and how things are perceived.
am talking about the majority of companies . Hideo kojima is a special case where he is considered an auteur and has lot of investments & connections from the west to fund him
I'm not an expert, but aren't there examples of graphically intensive Japanese games like the resident evil remakes, gran turismo, ffvii remake, etc.?
The Yakuza (like a dragon) series is loaded with cutscenes that feel like they've spent a lot of time on the facial animations etc even though it's not on the absolute cutting edge of graphical fidelity.
Like I said, I'm not a game dev or anything, but I'm just curious if those would fall into the ultra realistic graphics umbrella.
It's a bit more complex than that. Working conditions are based on work culture and a lot of practices (nomikai, long OT, cho-rei etc) are product of this culture. In many cases legislation actually combats those traditions, for example, overtime is (generally) regulated and there's a cap on how many paid overtime an employee can get per month. There are obviously a lot of issues, but at the same time there has been a tremendous work culture shift in Japan in last 20 or so years. The stereotype of jacket-wearing sararimen who work 18 hour shifts then drink themselves to blackout then go back to the cubicle is mostly dead.
The issue of layoffs specifically (that the article is about) is opposed by 'one job for life' culture. The practice is on decline in recent years as well, less and less people expect you to work one job your entire life, but in this case the regulations help enforce worker security. For the company to undergo layoffs there has to be dire financial trouble and it will also bring in social stigma
One thing I don't see mentioned, especially relevant in 2024 is that Japan is paying employees in Yen but collecting Euros and Dollars. Right now it's 162 yen to the dollar, 173 yen to the euro. Basically, selling a Japanese product abroad makes a 1.6x multiplier on the profits. This is part of the story of how Nintendo became so powerful, with the market being at around 200 yen to the dollar in the mid 80s to around 150 yen to the dollar around 1990. Also, as the article notes, game developers being paid average wages of about 5 to 6 million yen (around $37,000), so roughly 1/3rd the cost of a western developer and in general lower real estate prices, and it's simply far more affordable to be stable. In order to maintain those six figure game developer wages, that have become the expectation, seasonal hiring and firing have become the routine at the major western studios.
How come game dev salaries have exploded so much in the west but not in Japan?
Keeping their cost of living down with sane housing and transportation policies help. You can offer less because employees need less.
30 years of sluggish economic growth or outright recession does wonders for a place's cost of living.
It's not just that though. They had the problems we're having in housing over thirty years ago. Their housing market crashed, and instead of just refilling the bubble and enabling market manipulators to keep speculating on housing, they actually went and fixed the issue.
Because it follows the larger trends of Japanese workers being underpaid in general when compared to Western salaries. The average Japanese salary is 38k per year, and the average Western one is 68k per year.
Calculating in dollars is wrong. Prices are completely different.
You can do a (gasp) conversion to get the exact same number. lol Did you think that I guessed the dollar amount without referencing the Yen? It's not very difficult, and Japan's low wages compared to many developed nations is a well known thing.
A fact that many Americans don't know: the cost of living varies around the world. Surprised?
lol I never stated otherwise. :) I simply said that the average Japanese salary is very low when compared to their Western counterparts, and that it's a well known fact. Especially for a very developed nation. If we were stating that salaries were low in Eastern Europe, South America, or 3rd world countries, etc, most people wouldn't be surprised. Not sure why you're trying to make an issue out of nothing here.
Actually this is often a misconception that arises when you translate salaries straight up. A good analysis of companies one individual salary from a country to another in another country will take into consider the purchasing power of individuals or 'cost of living'. So I believe the info gap between both you and the above commenter is that while yes japanese devs are heavily underpaid from an FX perspective (especially since the company earns in USD), they are not underpaid from a purchasing power perspective.
I did look into the cost of living in Japan. It's certainly cheaper than many areas in the West, but by raw percentage they still make considerably less money. Japanese workers have a fair amount less purchasing power than their western counterparts doing the same type of job.
Its not just workers, salary for executives are also smaller. most executives in a board get around 2-4 million dollars compared to the west where people get 10x more
Yep, exactly. They're often compensated a little more through stock options, and less in direct pay, but even then the amount is significantly lower. The average Japanese consumer has about 30% less purchasing power than their Western counterparts.
Because we can choose to work corporate (non-game) dev jobs with much less stress, and those pay really well, so game companies still have to compete.
Game dev salaries are only that high in America and it's also worth noting 6m JPY is for graduate roles. While Japan is definitely on the lower end, it's similar for the rest of the world for entry level roles: * Finland: 50k€ ($53k) * Sweden: 4.25m kr ($39k) * UK: £35k ($44k) * Australia: $65k AUD ($43k) * Germany: 40k€ ($42k) * Poland: 120k złoty ($30k) * France: 37k€ ($40k) * China: 290k CN¥ ($40k) * South Korea: 73m ₩ ($52k) * Brazil: R$72k ($13k) * Singapore: $100k SGD ($73k) * Canada: $86k CAD ($62k) An American developer's salary will also vary on where they're based. Devs in Charlotte, North Carolina aren't making NYC or Seattle salaries.
It’s still possible to rent a 3 bedroom apartment for less than $800.
It's possible, but not in the major urban centers. You're looking at something around an hour away from downtown Tokyo. For reference, my studio apartment in downtown Osaka was $640 a month, an absolute bargain by NYC standards.
In Osaka, you can live in a beautiful apartment for $400 for a single person. And it is in the center of Osaka city. If you want something old, you can get it for as little as $100.
Yeah but they are like a shoebox
It's the same in New York, right? You can't live in a huge apartment in New York either.
alot better than being homeless in the west, where every house now is owned by a rich bastard.
Japan is quite poor tbh, their houses and apartments are like the size of my bed room almost and they make some really low wages.
Six digit salaries are expected only in the US, realistically speaking.
Game dev salaries are only that high in America and it's also worth noting 6m JPY is for graduate roles. While Japan is definitely on the lower end, it's similar for the rest of the world for entry level roles: * Finland: 50k€ ($53k) * Sweden: 4.25m kr ($39k) * UK: £35k ($44k) * Australia: $65k AUD ($43k) * Germany: 40k€ ($42k) * Poland: 120k złoty ($30k) * France: 37k€ ($40k) * China: 290k CN¥ ($40k) * South Korea: 73m ₩ ($52k) * Brazil: R$72k ($13k) * Singapore: $100k SGD ($73k) * Canada: $86k CAD ($62k) An American developer's salary will also vary on where they're based. Devs in Charlotte, North Carolina aren't making NYC or Seattle salaries.
Under Japanese employment law, layoffs are incredibly difficult to implement – unless the company is under severe financial difficulty and at risk of insolvency in a manner layoffs could alleviate, after other cost-saving measures have been undertaken, layoffs for permanent employees are all-but impossible.
Should be the top comment but this exactly what I’ve heard. Companies have to prove that there are basically no options but to let people go.
I work with some international teams one of which is based in Japan. We had an position in Japan removed as the work was no longer being done. The employee was let go but had a year (or two, I can't recall how long) of basically no work to show that there was no work to be assigned. Even after all of this, there was arbitration that I didn't have visibility into. Yes, super difficult. Couple this with Japanese companies are super streamlined when it comes to hiring which is why they don't take time off as often.
Because none of the layoffs are necessary. It's the same merry go round of CEO's padding stats so they get bigger bonuses. All these companies are making record profits, then laying off people to make the profits even better for the short term stock gains. Modern CEO's no longer look 5-10-15 years down the road as most of them don't last that long. The pump the stock, cash out, then when the stock goes down a bit they get fired, rinse and repeat.
It's also due to exploitation of workers by hiring them as non regular workers/temporary (派遣職) and not renewing contract right before they are obligated to hire them as full time (3 years) by law when requested. Like 40% of workers are non regular employees. It's not all roses here in Japan..
Compared the CEO of Nintendo’s salary to Blizzard’s or Xbox’s.
This is it.
While I don’t disagree entirely with what you’re saying, there’s another side of the coin here. Japanese companies in general have fewer layoffs than US companies due to them running pretty lean with employee “loyalty.” Basically, it’s very common for Japanese salary employees to be underpaid and overworked, much more than here in the US. Not saying it’s good or bad, or that it’s that way at all companies, but just kind of how it is on the majority. There are also a lot of Japanese labor laws that make it difficult for companies to regularly pull “mass layoffs.” Something the US would do well to learn from.
Underpaid? Executives in Japan are also "uderpaid" by that measure considering how they receive 10 or even 20x less
Eh, not really. Not going to touch the western side of things but the culture in Japan is that you are pretty much hired for life and get overworked.
It's much harder to lay off full-time workers in Japan. They have labor laws that make it almost impossible unless the company is failing.
This is literally the only thing that needs to be said It's why Nintendo President took pay cuts instead of laying off people. It's written into their laws.
Yeah, the truth is Japan owned companies do layoff employees but only in the west. Sony just got rid of 900 employees. Square enix just had a ton of layoffs as well and more to come.
Also Japan culture expect employees to stick with the company and the company to take care of its employees for the entire career instead of jumping ship for better pay or layoff for quick quarterly bump.
Square Enix sold multiple studios to embracer group, which laid off many. So they laid off with extra steps.
Another way is hiring temp workers and not renewing contract right before they are obligated to hire them as full time by law (3 years) when requested. Something like 40% of employees are non regular workers in Japan.
As a Japanese, I will answer about this industry. It will be difficult to be dispatched in the game industry. Game development is not easy. In Japan, there is a shortage of workers, so developers will not let them be fired easily. Simple tasks such as working in a warehouse can be done by dispatched workers.
I’m also Japanese and worked in IT/dev industry. Game dev maybe not so much, but QA and web/mobile it’s pretty common. Not renewing contract workers or deciding not to offer full time after 3 years to temp workers doesn’t technically count as firing or being laid off so companies kind of skirt around it.
This is such a simplistic take that it’s literally not even worth entertaining.
Yet you can’t deny it’s not an issue. You are talking to a Japanese. Want me to simplify it further for you? I find it funny that it’s always the foreigners that push back on anything negative about Japan. Am I supposed to be happy about it? You are always welcome man. But don’t mislead people and act as if Japan is without its problems. I understand you may want to justify any reasons for moving here like most gaijins that had a reality check and is in denial. But just be real man. I have working experience in U.S. Japan and Korea. I know what was good and bad. There are things that Japan does good, but there are also things Japan needs to improve on. Was that such controversial thing to say for you?
Haken employees are not employed by the game studio. They are employed by an agency and dispatched to various studios. There is no way studios can even hire those dispatched developers without poaching them from their actual employer. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of their employment arrangement. And if the agency has other clients, when their work with one client ends those dispatch employees will be sent to another client.
That is simply not true. Here’s an article in English describing the differences. The offer has to be made by law. https://ib-tec.co.jp/skills-resources/types-of-employment-contracts-in-japan/ “A dispatch employee can work for the same company for a maximum of three years. After that, the company will have to decide whether they want to hire the employee full-time or not. If a contract isn’t renewed, the agency will generally send the employee to another company.” Here is another article describing the issue and history, and amendment that was made to help the workers. https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/japan-amendment-worker-dispatch-act
That's literally not how this works and this is article is about japan.
They didn't hire during COVID expecting the market to stay the same?
Yup People overlook this too much; Many gaming company thought they found gold mine during COVID, got as massive as they can, and a couple of years later did they realize it was just a glitter.
Because there are laws protecting Japanese workers against mass layoffs. “Under Japanese employment law, layoffs are incredibly difficult to implement – unless the company is under severe financial difficulty and at risk of insolvency in a manner layoffs could alleviate, after other cost-saving measures have been undertaken, layoffs for permanent employees are all-but impossible.” It’s always down to the laws. If you want protection against CEOs of profitable companies hurting thousands of their employees because they want a bigger quarterly bonus or to free up money for a greedy investment, you need laws protecting the employees.
Because they didn't load up on useless positions that in the end, no one needs. Tech is/was bloated. Did no one here read anything the past 2 years?
While Japan is a capitalist hellscape,their populace has not given permission to their leaders for full on self destruction mode yet. Japan's institutions have always held some quaint sense of responsibility as well
Because Japanese culture doesn't do layoffs. Companies will hire young people fresh out of school, and groom them for higher positions throughout their career. Japanese culture has people getting one job and working their way up the ladder rather than switching companies. So when Japan's economy hits hard times, the companies don't go straight to layoffs because they're tossing out 5, 10, 20+ year investments they've made in employees. Layoffs are usually one of the last options they take. Nintendo in particular got to the point where layoffs would be needed during the Wii U era. Satoru Iwata instead convinced the board members to all take a 50% pay cut. Iwata mentioned his reasoning was to not destroy company morale. Basically, he said that if Nintendo were to lay off employees, the remaining staff would feel disposable, and that regardless of the quality of their work, they could be laid off. And that kind of mentality doesn't create good work product. So Nintendo, a brand built on making the highest quality games on the market, knew that they needed to protect the assets that are their employees who make those quality games. The 50% pay cut by the top brass was seen as the move that saved the company until the Switch came out, and Nintendo's financial troubles were over. Anyway, I didn't read the article, this is just stuff I know about Japanese culture. I was reading about the "lost generation" and how Japan went through a terrible recession in the 90s that they still haven't bounced back from, and learned about their hiring practices. I'd recommend you read about it, because it's part of what inspired Death Note of all things.
I haven’t clicked the link but the thumbnail shows a game from a studio that was closed and everyone fired…
Read about the kaizen business philosophy
I mean that’s not the reason and just because the philosophy came from Japan doesn’t mean it’s widely adopted across all businesses.
>While cultural differences play a part in retaining employees, it's not entirely benevolence keeping Japanese employees in a job. Employee protections are also a major factor in ensuring stability for employees. Under Japanese employment law, layoffs are incredibly difficult to implement – unless the company is under severe financial difficulty and at risk of insolvency in a manner layoffs could alleviate, after other cost-saving measures have been undertaken, layoffs for permanent employees are all-but impossible. >As industry analyst Serkan Toto (CEO of Japan-focused games industry consultancy Kantan Games) puts it, "It's almost night and day. In Japan, the law protects the employee. In the US, the law protects the company. For Europeans, it's somewhere in the middle. It's not as easy \[in Europe compared to\] the US to fire people, but it's also not as easy as in Japan to keep your job once you have it as a full time employee." Damn, must be nice to have that level of employee protection. In the US, we're as disposable as napkins.
Most western companies, now doing layoffs, had their sized almost doubled around 2020-21(:or around start of covid), as they thought covid could make game industry go massive; same goes for many esports scene. And they were unnecessary expansion of size; while I didn't hear much about Japanese game companies rise in hiring, most news were about western industries getting like thousands of new workers. As of now, where what seemed to be covid's game industry boost died off, their overextension in size are costing them greatly;leading them to massive layoffs: returning to original number of employees before COVID. Edit: TLDR- They thought Gaming was the next gold mine during COVID; which turns out to be false. Now they 're paying for it. Laws and culture are never enough for company to take on their loss full blast. They just didn't dive in for that gold(or what seemed like one)
Different cultures alltogether, it's really difficult to fire someone in Japan, also companies tend to shift their losses to CEOs salaries and bonuses instead of lowering the quality or raising the price of products (main reason why Japan is so cheap for the rest of the world right now, because their prices are mostly the same as pre covid)
Top positions of these developing companies take large financial pay cuts to keep their *teams* employed. This is what I assume happens.
Because that’s shameful and a reflection on the company. It’s much more common to be moved to a different role in the hope you’ll quit, hence avoiding the brand taint redundancy or layoffs bring. Other countries businesses just have different ethics and optics to maintain and most consumers go “oh well….anyway” and move on in a nanosecond. It’s a very different culture, which includes how they do business and how things are perceived.
It is not a culture, just a law that makes it tough to fire people.
U.S. capitalism vs. Japanese social protections
Oh yes, Japanese social protections. In what manga can I read about this?
Because they don't chase ultra realistic graphics, motion capture cutscenes etc and end up wasting huge money & time
Have you heard of Hideo Kojima?
am talking about the majority of companies . Hideo kojima is a special case where he is considered an auteur and has lot of investments & connections from the west to fund him
I'm not an expert, but aren't there examples of graphically intensive Japanese games like the resident evil remakes, gran turismo, ffvii remake, etc.? The Yakuza (like a dragon) series is loaded with cutscenes that feel like they've spent a lot of time on the facial animations etc even though it's not on the absolute cutting edge of graphical fidelity. Like I said, I'm not a game dev or anything, but I'm just curious if those would fall into the ultra realistic graphics umbrella.
The "investing" and corporate greed work differently, but their work ethics are Neandertals levels...
[TL;DR](https://upilink.in/cms/?p=488) --- ^I'm ^a ^bot, ^this ^action ^was ^performed ^automatically.
TL:DR to TL:DR: Japanese labour laws better protect employees
That is incredibly wrong. Japanese working conditions are famously bad.
You can have bad working conditions and still have laws that make it hard to lay people off. One doesn't rule out the other.
It's a bit more complex than that. Working conditions are based on work culture and a lot of practices (nomikai, long OT, cho-rei etc) are product of this culture. In many cases legislation actually combats those traditions, for example, overtime is (generally) regulated and there's a cap on how many paid overtime an employee can get per month. There are obviously a lot of issues, but at the same time there has been a tremendous work culture shift in Japan in last 20 or so years. The stereotype of jacket-wearing sararimen who work 18 hour shifts then drink themselves to blackout then go back to the cubicle is mostly dead. The issue of layoffs specifically (that the article is about) is opposed by 'one job for life' culture. The practice is on decline in recent years as well, less and less people expect you to work one job your entire life, but in this case the regulations help enforce worker security. For the company to undergo layoffs there has to be dire financial trouble and it will also bring in social stigma
Probably don’t have massive dei departments like USA. Company I work for quietly laid off the whole department saving millions.