Salary overview 2006

I have often alluded to the fact the salaries in the Japanese game industry are lower than those in the west without ever letting myself get pinned down on the details, and with good reason! Salary details are incredibly hard to find, and so far I haven’t been that successful, but I have at least garnered enough data to present a rough picture of the situation which is, if personal email queries are anything to judge by, what people are interested in most.

Some important things you need to keep in mind:
Some of the Japanese salaries quoted below are nothing more than educated guesses! It is very hard to find these figures as game companies don’t usually quote salaries on their recruit pages. If you’re feeling optimistic you could think it is because they want to find good candidates and not scare them off with salary preconceptions. If, like me, you are more pessimistic, you may think it’s because salary is the one thing they cannot use to court potential employees. They must rely on their willingness to work for your company alone as salaries are too low to attract anybody.
The figures I did find are for Japanese companies and Japanese employees. So what of foreigners? There are two schools of thought in this area. One thinks the only foreigners foolish enough to move to Japan are those desperate to work in games, so they can be exploited and paid less than their Japanese colleagues. Another thinks of foreigners as valuable employees that bring in outside knowledge and expertise that can benefit the company and due to their outsider status they can circumvent social etiquette and demand higher salaries. Whichever you face depends largely on the company and how you present yourself.
The salaries quoted are yearly salaries; as a full-time employee you will be part of the bonus scheme which skews the monthly income somewhat. It also doesn’t reflect tax, which is pretty decent in Japan, and benefit deductions, cost of living or holidays. All these figures can do for you is to give you an extremely rough indication of what kind of salary you may be looking at or have to negotiate for. A very rough, big picture painted with broad brushstrokes is what I’m getting at here, do not quote these figures as well-researched proof!
The split between junior and senior isn’t as pronounced in Japan as it is in the west. Often the most important factor in deciding your wages and seniority is age, with people in their twenties earning less than people in their thirties, regardless of talent or experience. For convenience I have upheld the split between junior and senior in the figures below with junior in Japan meaning people in their early twenties, and senior meaning people from their thirties onwards.
Salaries in similar careers are higher, sometimes much higher. IT workers for example could earn twice as much as a games programmer. If you have exceptional skills and great Japanese abilities you are probably wasting your talents in the game business. Certainly if you’re out to make money games is probably the worst choice. So a desire to work in the Japanese games industry is a must, but it does open you up to exploitation.
Foreign companies in Japan seem to have higher salaries though sometimes they can take the mickey and offer equal or lower salaries than Japanese companies. Like most things it is highly recommended to shop around! Like every business experience counts for a lot, so you may need to accept a bad offer for your first job in Japan; having Japanese experience makes you a more attractive prospect for future employers.
Salaries increase somewhat with promotions but generally not by much. As in the west the very best way to improve your salary is to find a new place of employment. Job-hopping is slowly losing its stigma in Japan but be warned that too many short-term engagements on your resume still reflects badly on you. Make sure you are at least comfortable with your salary when you accept a job as pay-rises are hard to come by once you’ve started. Be warned that aggressive pay negotiation will prolong the employer’s decision making process immensely!
Remember that once you have signed your contract you have accepted the salary on offer and the conditions that go with it! It is no use complaining that you’re not earning enough or, say, start a blog to complain about the bonus system. Go into every job interview well informed and decide what you want before you sign any contract.

The following conversion has been used, as of December 13, 2006:

1 US$ = 0.507 GBP = 117.160 JPY

US$ and GPB are rounded off to the nearest 1000, JPY to the nearest 100,000 to keep the figures easy to read.

Average salaries in the U.S.

U.S.	US$	GBP	JPY
Programmer (jr)	73,000	38,000	8,600,000
Programmer (snr)	90,000	46,000	10,600,000
Artist (jr)	61,000	31,000	7,200,000
Artist (snr)	68,000	35,000	8,000,000
Designer (jr)	54,000	28,000	6,400,000
Designer (snr)	70,000	36,000	8,300,000
Audio Designer	47,000	24,000	5.600.000
Assistant Producer	66,000	34,000	7.800.000
Producer	127,000	65,000	14.900.000

Average salaries in the U.K.

U.K.	US$	GBP	JPY
Programmer (jr)	46,000	23,000	5,400,000
Programmer (snr)	73,000	37,000	8,600,000
Artist (jr)	42,000	21,000	4,900,000
Artist (snr)	70,000	35,000	8,100,000
Designer (jr)	44,000	22,000	5,100,000
Designer (snr)	64,000	32,000	7,400,000
Audio Designer	48,000	24,000	5.600.000
Assistant Producer	46,000	23,000	5,400.000
Producer	79,000	40,000	9,300.000

Average salaries in Japan

Japan	US$	GBP	JPY
Programmer (jr)	26,000	13,000	3,000,000
Programmer (snr)	43,000	22,000	5,000,000
Artist (jr)	24,000	13,000	2,800,000
Artist (snr)	41,000	21,000	4,800,000
Designer (jr)	28,000	14,000	3,200,000
Designer (snr)	39,000	20,000	4,500,000
Audio Designer	35,000	18,000	4,000.000
Assistant Producer	39,000	20,000	4,500.000
Producer	52,000	26,000	6,000.000

Comparative chart

Sources: Game Developer Magazine, IGDA, The Chaos Engine, Seesaa.net, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Job Direct and numerous company websites.

Help Japanmanship!

Should this post be interesting to enough people I may be persuaded to keep my data updated and corrected as much as possible. As such I would ask readers to provide me with reliable sources for this data and other information which can help expand the usefulness and accuracy of these kinds of comparative charts. In particular I am interested in average working hours, tax rates, holiday pay and more detailed salary information. Also it may be interesting to add Australia, Europe and other popular areas to the whole if such information can be found.
Please use the email address in the side-bar to send me any additional information, preferably sources, which can help with this. Anonymity, if required, can be guaranteed.