The current discussion around the proposed payment for voice actress Hellena Taylor for working on Bayonetta 3 in the West has given me the idea to provide an overview of the salary situation in Japan’s game industry.
Quick background:
In 2019, I acquired a recruiting license (the business is regulated in Japan) for my consultancy. Recruiting is not my focus at all, but it’s not even legal to help companies recruit people for free – so in Japan, the license is a must even for casual introductions or simply handling CVs.
Generally speaking, people working in gaming in Japan are not getting paid well – even though some studios like Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo or Capcom have increased salaries across the board earlier this year.
Of course, they did not do this out of the kindness of their hearts: the Japanese industry lacks talent, and studios here are finally understanding one major factor to retain people is to pay them properly.
Salaries In Japan’s Game Industry
There are several ways to gauge the situation around salaries in Japan’s game industry, but I myself usually refer to data from Japan’s Computer Entertainment Association (CESA).
The latest data available was published in 2020, collected in July 2019 and refers to the year 2018 (n=3,007).
According to the study, the average yearly salary for game professionals across all roles stood at 5.5 million yen in 2018 (with 9.61 years of work experience and at 34.63 years of age at average).
That 5.5 million yen currently translates to just US$37,000 – but note the yen has been falling like a rock this year.
Broken down into roles, the average salaries across the entire industry stood at:
- 6.8 million yen for game producers (US$45,700)
- 6.2 million yen for directors (US$41,600)
- 5.7 million yen for engineers (US$38,200)
- 5.6 million yen for artists (US$37,600)
- 5.5 million yen for designers (US$37,000)
- 4.6 million for game testers and debuggers (US$30,100)
According to CESA’s wording, all sums include bonus payments – typically a key part of the salary in Japan.
Keep in mind these numbers are based on averages, derived from an annual survey, times have changed since they were published (they would be slightly higher now), and salaries in Japan, too, can vary widely from company to company and individual to individual.
(For instance, CESA says salaries in the smartphone game sector are generally lower than for the console game sector across the board.)
But I do believe they give a solid approximation of the salary landscape in Japan’s video game industry.
