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Capcom Increases Starting Salary of Employees in Japan by Around 25%

March 7, 2024

2 6 minutes read

Capcom Increases Starting Salary of Employees in Japan by Around 25%

Resurgent developer and publisher Capcom has announced that it will increase the salary of starting employees in Japan by more than 25%, beginning at the start of its fiscal year 2025. In addition, current employees will receive a pay rise and a bonus as the company seeks to further invest in its most valuable resource.

In a statement (thanks VGC), Capcom announced the happy news, revealing that new graduate hires who currently make ¥235,000 per month (about $1560) will see that number rise to ¥300,000 per month (around $2,000). “With this increase in starting salary, Capcom is pursuing further investment in human capital and the acquisition of exceptional talent”, the statement reads.

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Existing employees will receive a “one-time special payment” and an average salary increase of 5%. That’s on top of the 30% increase in pay Capcom employees received back in April 2022, in addition to a bonus system more closely tied to company performance. Based Capgod, indeed.

Would you like to work for Capcom and receive such generous remuneration? Do you think the company’s investment in its employees is the secret to its recent string of successes? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source videogameschronicle.com]

Khayl Adam is the second-best video game journalist Australia has ever produced, and his ambitions of world domination have (thus far) been curbed by the twin siren songs of strategy games and CRPGs. He has always felt an affinity for the noble dachshund, the best kind of dog.

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1
somnambulance
11h ago

Finally some success shown in the industry… and by a company that absolutely deserves credit for their games

2
Deoxyr1bose
11h ago

This really feels like the year where Japanese and Eastern game devs just completely dominate. The biggest game of the year is Palworld from Japan, the highest rated game of the year is FF7Rebirth from Japan, ATLUS/RGG both made their fastest selling titles ever and that’s probably gonna be vanillaware also, Tekken 8 is the new FGC darling. And even looking towards the future, a lot of the most anticipated games (Stellar Blade, Wukong, Dragon’s Dogma, Rise of the Ronin, Elden Ring DLC) are from the East (not even mentioning Nintendo). What is there for Western AAA games this year? Star Wars Outlaws, Xbox’s admittedly great lineup, and that’s it. Not to mention how every Western game studio has been laying off people left and right.

I don’t mean this in like a “Place, Japan” type of way, but I really hope Western AAA devs take note of what the indie and Eastern scene is doing

3
TrickyDicky99
10h ago

To people calling this a win, the starting salary is less than the minimum wage in the UK.

Some people really don’t read past the headlines.

4
breakneck
10h ago

The government has strongly urged all companies to raise salaries and analysts are saying this year will be see the biggest raises in general to help combat the very bad inflation.

5
nomither6
10h ago

@somnambulance Facts! With games like Marvel Vs Capcom 4, Viewtiful Joe PS5, Dino Crisis 4, Powerstone 3, azuras wrath 2, darkstalkers & Tatsunoko vs Capcom 2 , all praises to the capGOD 💯🔥

6
ChrisDeku
10h ago

I don’t mean this in like a “Place, Japan” type of way, but I really hope Western AAA devs take note of what the indie and Eastern scene is doing

So they should learn to pay their staff less than what a Janitor earns and make them crunch 52 weeks a year?

7
IndoorEnthusiast
9h ago

Geez i think the stoned kid behind the Burger King counter makes more then this, shame on Capcom

8
nessisonett
9h ago

The headlines make it sound like a big win. I honestly have no clue how they could live on those wages while working under crunch and so forth, it’s not financially worth the stress. You hear about companies like Nintendo sorta taking advantage of workers’ love for the brand to get away with mistreatment though.

9
Sil_Am
9h ago

@ChrisDeku Yea, but remember around 2020 when everybody started hating and revealing crunch culture on western games. It made western publishers stop the practice, but look where we are now, 6-7 years to make a game. Wth?
It’s the media that stopped crunch, but you can indirectly blame them for the drought of AAA Sony releases we have now.
With Totori at the realm of Sony, things will probably go back to what they were, now that we live in a cut costs anyway possible world.

10
Sil_Am
9h ago

What do you prefer? Close down studios for not delivering games or make them work harder and faster for less money, but have results. The latter is why there are abundant japanese games releasing this year, and no western games.

11
naruball
8h ago

@Sil_Am I wouldn’t mind waiting 10 years for a new game if it meant the end of crunch. I value people’s physical and mental health over my enjoyment of yet another video game, especially when I have such a huge backlog to begin with. But that’s just me.

12
Sil_Am
7h ago

@naruball I get you, I also have a huge backlog of games to play and can wait, but it’s not sustainable, for Sony, at least.

13
Frmknst
7h ago

@TrickyDicky99 you know you can’t just compare naked numbers, do you? maybe a burger that costs 20 pounds in england is 5 bucks in Japan – just a wild example.

14
ZhuckelDror
7h ago

@TrickyDicky99
You do realise that the cost of living in Japan is roughly 50% less than in the UK, right?

15
RainbowGazelle
6h ago

That’s still less than my current pay as an assistant English teacher in Japan.

16
HotGoomba
4h ago

@TrickyDicky99 You do realize that approximately 0.0000001% of the active users in this website are from Japan and fully understand Japan salaries and currency, right?

17
naruball
4h ago

@Sil_Am yup. From a business point of view, absolutely.

18
somnambulance
4h ago

@TrickyDicky99 Many of us don’t live in Japan, so we don’t necessarily know how the wages convert into disposable income for the area. I live in Wisconsin in the US, so I’m well aware of differences in pay from area to area. A person in California would look at wages out here and wonder if everyone is homeless, but the cost of a home is also less than half of what a home would be, even in rural parts of California. Gas is cheaper, food is cheaper, practically everything is cheaper, outside the standardized priced items like games. It’s a US example, sure, but there’s a spread in how wages can be applied to daily life. I suspect this may be partially why the US economy is imploding though, but that’s not a topic for here.

Still, it’s an increase on salary instead of layoffs and that counts for something.

19
IntrepidWombat
4h ago

I did some digging because that number was alarming to me, but for Osaka, that’s a pretty decent income for a young single person starting out. Just a hair below the median income but enough to cover all expenses plus some discretionary spending if livingcost.org is accurate.

20
tatsumi
3h ago

Capcom HQ is in Osaka.
And for Osaka living standards the starting salary is a bit below the average (average approx 4-4.5M yen per year or 333300-375000 per month).
So I would say that’s not too bad for Japanese standards.

Also a Big Mac here is ¥480.
When 2 people earn that kind of salary, they can easily afford their own house depending on the area in Osaka (there are great choices that set you back 40-70M).

Just to give a perspective. The salary is nothing crazy, but I’m sure senior devs earn pretty well at Capcom.

Source: I live in Osaka since 8 years.