Those truly were the days. Releasing a new event segment on the weekend hoping to go home immediately after only for it to bug and go into a six hour maintenance. Good times.
Great video! I'm glad there's finally someone with a more in-depth knowledge in this area talking about stuff like these, because we don't usually get to see people who's actually working in japan talks about this topic often I can't wait for part 2 now!
Glad you enjoy the video! I can imagine that because of how strict many companies are with employee usage of social media and how most people in Japan don't speak English it really doesn't get out of the country much. Fortunately my current position makes it a lil bit easier to do this now though I'd be sweating if I ever did decide to go back to a big studio
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. At times I feel like some parts (though not all unfortunately) of the stereotype that exists within the industry is outdated to some extent so I'm glad that through the video you got to see something interesting!
I'm glad you found it informative! Been thinking of how to do this video for a while to lead up to the future ones so I hope it ends up being an enjoyable watch for you!
This was really interesting and insightful! As someone who works in the industry elsewhere in the world (Aus, NZ, Canada) it's really difficult to get a read on the Japanese industry since all you tend to hear from outside are the horror stories, so it's awesome to get your perspective and some concrete research on the state of the industry. Looking forward to part 2 :)
Ey, glad to see that people working in the industry elsewhere in the world are seeing this too. To be honest there's always be a part of me that has wanted to try that someday too. Yea it does feel like a lot of the stories that tend to come out of Japan do tend to be on the bad side and the ways that the industry has been pretty black in the past probably lends to that as well. Nowadays they've cleaned up their act a lot so things are getting better but at the same time, most companies have very draconian restrictions on how their employees are allowed to use social media so I'd imagine the number of people who'd be out there talking about this would be few and far between. To be honest if I ever did go back to a AAA company someday I'd prolly be worried about them finding this channel too tbh. But at least my current position makes it easier for me to talk about stuff like this so I'm glad you enjoyed the video! And thank you for watching. 🙏
the no.1 problem I found when I was working on a game company here in Japan is that , some companies tend to enforce the fixed OT so bad that sometimes, when it's really in rush dev time you'll past the OT fixed time and ended up not being paid. it's so bad that I wish Fixed OT is illegal in this country... and for avg game industry income being 5m yen... that's BS AF lol...
The best case would'be been if fixed OT was just made part of base salary and they just did away with the system altogether yea... Though that said the company doing that to you I'm pretty sure is actually illegal so that's pretty messed up. Prolly too late to take them to task about that but it is something that would be punished pretty badly by the government if they found out. I had that experience too when I was working 12 hours a day per week for entire months on end when things got really busy but the company I worked for made me fill up the form for submission to the government and paid the extended OT so it wasn't as bad (monetarily wise at least my health did get pretty bad lol) Also yea they industry and country wide income really needs to go up especially now
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yea that one did really crazily better than expected. Feels like it'll be awhile before I ended up with anything that will top it XD
Thanks for the great insider perspective! I'm currently in college and considering whether or not to seek a job in Japan. This has changed my perspective quite a bit. Most stories I hear about job hunting in Japan is terrible and most I've seen are from low-pay English teachers which is unfortunately not a great job. On the other hand, I've also heard many stories about troubles seeking jobs in America despite it being a "entry level" job. It's great to hear that Japan has companies that seek out people to train from the ground up. It's unfortunate that the product suffers, which pains me as a fellow gamer, but I would be thankful for opportunities to grow. Obviously, no company is perfect and stuff like the arubaito treatment and hierarchy is pretty sad. Not saying that American companies don't have kind companies, but it's hard to look past all the job hunting conversations that I've been exposed to. Anways, can't wait to see your next video and take care!
Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching! I'd say when it comes to considering work in Japan there is a lot to consider since conditions vary massively between companies but on top of that as well as someone moving overseas to work there's alotta social aspects to consider. That one would be in a country where the locals all only speak a non-english language and some are still very unused to the difference in culture that comes with working with someone from another country since many companies, especially small ones, have been largely homogeneous for a long time so some older people get really used to how to handle people within the Japanese culture context and get confused or just more shy among others. So to some extent some people do end up feeling a lil more lonely but that could be a thing with working overseas in general and not a Japan only thing. Though of course there are a lot of fun and interesting things to do too like all the anime events going on year round
@@overworkedsalaryman Appreciate the response! Events and the goods is probably the biggest draw for me. I pretty much live my live mostly by myself anyways so it's not a big deal for me. Though the biggest challenge is probably all the keigo and careful wording. I did take a class in it before, and I got to say its hard to get my head around especially when I don't use it in my everyday currently LOL.
@@mottower No worries! Thank you for replying if anything and yea don't worry. Keigo, especially business level son-keigo and kenjogo are so stupidly complicated that even most Japanese people don't understand it since it isn't really covered in the syllabus. So even if you can't do it perfectly most companies will understand. Especially since you're coming from overseas most companies would prolly be quite understanding unless you're planning for jobs in the service sector then it gets really tough. I'd say more important to getting better is to speak with confidence and focus on trying to get your thoughts across concisely rather than on being as polite as possible. If people can understand what you want to get across it's easier for them to help point out better words for the situation rather than if a person were to stumble on getting the point across. Also idk how easy it'd be to find a small community of people who want to speak Japanese there but if you can find one it'd be a good way to gather together people who can practice together.
*cracks knuckles* "alright, let's find some time in the day to sit down and watch a movie" but no fr lol, thanks for the vid, I'll make the time to watch Mr. BA man's serial documentary making habit later today
Apologies that it ended up so long I can stop anytime I swear 🙏 Though lol fr I promise the vid lengths will go back to normal soon, the recent ones really did end up being a lil longer on average than I expected them too. That said I hope you enjoy the video nonetheless!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video 🙇 I hope so too so we can finally move toward a more sustainable and hopefully more innovation focused future for the industry. 🙏
@@overworkedsalaryman you are very correct. Rather than focusing only on growth, focusing on being sustainable will ensure longevity. If you are keeping up with the current controversy regarding that “consulting” company, I hope that it hasn’t affected the small and independent Japanese game makers. That plus the localization issue has really put a very big spotlight on the games industry.
First time viewer and greatly enjoyed the video. Gave me a much better understanding of Japanese work culture and let me differentiate between stereotype and reality. Checked the title of some of your other videos and want to ask you thoughts on the impact gacha had on the jp game dev scene. Whether it’s positive or negative, how it forced the industry to change, players/parents/gov reaction, …etc. I follow yahtzee’s (of zero punctuation, now fully ramblomatic, fame) framework of treating (single player) games as “Art” and a way to explore different emotional experiences, thus gacha stand in direct opposition to what I think games should be. I understand the team probably poured a lot of work into the games they support, but I can not shake how they milk players/what most of them stand for and would like another perspective coming from an industry insider. I am vaguely familiar with the Chinese game dev scene and know that gacha/microtransactions basically choke out most indie opportunities. However, I’m wondering what effects gacha had a scene that was much more vibrant and full of indie spirit to begin with.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I would say that is a question that would require a very long answer which I plan go into deeper depth in a segment of a later part of the series but to put it in what would fit in a youtube comment reply: It has had both positive & negative impacts and it's hard to say definitively which it is since: 1. Some genres of games are just no longer as financially viable anymore (i.e Visual Novels) so companies that make those either have to run on a skeleton crew to stay profitable or venture out of their comfort zone to survive and for those companies, starting a gacha game is the easiest transition as they try to get into other genres since it's a genre that is lighter on mechanics & systems and management of the game can be outsourced. So in a sense it has positives in this regard since it helps preserve genres that are struggling now as a way for these companies to fund their less profitable work for the people who do enjoy it while also giving companies breathing space to explore other genres for something to transition into in the future. 2. At the same time it has also ended up becoming quite a money sink now in that some companies are literally burning money chasing a style of game that is arguably only really profitable for the top 10% or less. To make a successful gacha game now is extremely cost intensive especially in the marketing & design department & companies have burnt bucketloads of money producing games that definetly do not recoup and this means that money that could've gone into innovating new games is also going into projects with a low success rate because they see the potential money at the top but don't see how difficult it is to get there. 3. This point might seem a little mean-spirited but in a way the talent pool in the industry has also become muddled since a lot of people experienced in live ops now are being thrown into development with only live ops experience and expected to make or lead creation of high quality development titles which leads to at times the quality of the game falling instead due to the lack of experience in what they need to do. There are more people in the industry now thanks to gacha games but at the same time there are many in the game industry with no development experience at all which becomes a problem when trying to develop new innovative titles. 4. When it comes to gacha and indie it's tough to say whether it's 100% a bad thing since it does give many indie or smaller companies a base to make something simpler that has the chance to earn a lot and fund their making their future passion projects as well and many big companies do pay these companies to just develop the game and not run in so it does create some level of a springboard for indie companies to gain experience. Though of course at the same time one could argue that it might stifle the innovation of these smaller firms as they end up taking orders instead of creating something wholly original instead but that I feel really depends more on the company in question. Cygames ain't a small company but they started in gacha and using all the money they earned have now transitioned out and turned into an animation studio + consumer game maker and arguably a company expanding out it multiple fields like that would've been tough if not for their start in a position that earned them a lot of money. On a seperate note, Indie in Japan has always been a little iffy since to begin with there has been a long-term patent war in the game industry here which I would argue has strangled indie innovation before gacha games have had the chance to. While it isn't non-existant, indie here is not that massive nowadays simply because it's a lot harder to take risks with new systems when a much bigger company with a blanket patent from 10 years ago among their 2,000 patents might slap that patent in the indie group's face and threaten lawsuit.
As for my personal stance I do not like how gacha is being used as widespread as it is in mobile games and would rather we move away from gacha as a form of monetisation eventually but at the same time I don't wish for the gacha games that exist now to just disappear overnight since these games are bringing people joy with what they have to offer aside from the gacha. As wishful as it is I would hope to see them use the money to transition into making something non-gachaish either as a mix-media IP or into other genres in the future and let the IP they've cultivated grow into something bigger to be less reliant on the gacha game. Which is why I sometimes say if one supports the IP to not spend on the gacha but on stuff like goods instead and basically show the company that they can earn, just not from the gacha and that there are people who would support their endevours into other genres instead. That and it would serve to steer other companies away from creating games with a gacha in the future which would be great too. Though admittedly it'd be tough since we live in an environment where there are a segment of people who actually do get a power trip from whaling. I know a few people like that irl too so yea... Personally I'd love to see more innovation in the game industry too in terms of making unique and fun experiencess with a reasonable price but if we wanna get there there's still a lot more work that needs to be done
@overworkedsalaryman thanks for the response. The answer is honestly quite detailed and I appreciate it. Maybe you can include/build on some of these points in the next part if it fits. :)
I really love these kind of videos from you, due to the fact that you have not only an understanding on Japanese sources and websites, but also the first hand accounts you can personally make. Because I feel like most of the things are pretty much biased or skewed in one way or the other mostly due to most English youtubers taking sources from interviews or third party sources, so in all seriousness I watched all of this video and look forward to more/
I'm truly glad that you enjoy this style of videos. 🙏 It's a lil more serious than the usual videos I upload but like the other video types it's one that I wanna leave as a One of the videos I remembering watching that slowly made me feel more like making this video was one about shadowing a day in the life of a colopl employee. In large part because when I saw those types of videos it struck a disonnance within me between what I know the common employee in those companies were working through and what the videos portrayed. I wouldn't fault the youtuber since they did the most they could with the style of video that they wanted to do and it painted the industry very positively which makes me happy since I work in it but at the same time I don't want people entering the industry with the wrong impression and then suffering. At the same time it makes it harder to explain the issues with the game industry here when it is painted overly positively as well so I hoped to at least release a video that is more balanced as a pre-amble to the rest of the videos explaining the state of the industry more later on. So hopefully the future videos end up being entertaining too
Woo! New Salaryman video! I'm glad to hear that the work culture there is getting better, even if it's a slow change. It's interesting that companies used to (and still do) report working days off... weekends and public holidays are just assumed a normal thing in North America. Though that one company that had "150" sounded really enticing (though I'm not sure if it said 150 days off or something else) Excited to see what part 2 will bring!
Yea it really is odd how what the law stipulates and what people actually perceive as an off-day in Japan now has a dissonance to it in due to the 40hr a week + 1 guaranteed day off stipulation works. Here's hoping one day we get flex hours and more companies adopting hybrid work weeks too.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and that it managed to bring to you something of value.🙇 These are things I had to live through to some extent so it makes it easier to talk about. With the next few parts in the series it'll prolly end up going into more analysis off of some of these points and how they affect the game industry's performance so idk how it'll go yet but I hope those will bring you something of interest too!
Galneryus is really awesome yea. Been listening since before they swapped vocalists but ultimate sacrifice was a great album too. Glad to hear from another based galneryus enjoyer though
Thanks a lot for the video. I am a student soon will graduate my uni. I always planned to work in game industry after getting a master's degree, or even maybe without it. I was also curious about Japan's gaming industry, so yeah it was very informative and interesting. Will be waiting for part 2)
Glad you enjoyed the video! With the game industry I'd say if you plan to get a masters before entering the game industry if your degree is in an unrelated industry, at least picking up Unity or UE and making something simple on your own would look good for your portfolio. Especially since you'd look more competitive than the average person not from a game design university. If you are from one then you're prolly already good to go. If you plan to work in Japan in the future... the game industry isn't all too bad although it really depends on what type of company you wanna enter though in general with worklife in Japan depending on where you're from it could either be a big step up or down (Was really surprised when I heard how much better protection is available for workers in the UK)
I am a software engineer in the US I am actually going to be in Japan for 2 years, I know this is specific to the games industry but I do think it is this could be sort of analogous, and it is very interesting! Also, I love the n64, does yours work? mine broke years ago.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I hope the two years you are going to be working in Japan ends up being peaceful & not too tough and that you enjoy the time staying in Japan. 🙏 That and I hope the company is paying you in USD still it'll make life in Japan very very affordable right now. Some points run quite similar to how things are in other industries as well indeed as you said. With the video I just didn't wanna come of as speaking for all industries especially since there are many that are both doing worse and better than the game industry so I didn't wanna generalise things in the video in a way that might take away from their experience. Hence why I went with a more zoomed in perspective instead. That said the N64 still works yea! The issue now is getting a monitor to actually use it on as my previous one broke down or to figure out how to use a capture card with it so I can just play it on the pc instead.
@@overworkedsalaryman Oh using a capture card is a good idea, an older elgato should have composite capture, might be a good place to look into that monitor adapter! And if for some reason I see you in Tokyo I will be sure to say hello haha
@@SensoTaiFor sure. If I happen to be free when that happens I'd be glad to show you around the area as well. o7 But yea I guess getting an elagato might be the easier way huh... time to get saving
Interesting. You mentioned Gremory Games. I'm actually currently playing Action Taimanin for a few weeks now and it's been pretty enjoyable. What did you work on? Is industry working culture actually different because it is Korean based?
I worked on RPG, RPG's EN version for a few months earlier in its development & on GoGo's initial draft. One thing to note though is that Gremory isn't the Korean dev that initially worked on Action Taimanin. The team that did isn't credited for the game itself as they were contracted to produce the game for Gremory which is technically a subsidiary of Infibrain but is really just the same company as staff were interchangeable between the two. It is used as a seperate hiring arm for the supposed family friendly arm of Infibrain which was supposed to produce more titles like Action Taimanin & GoGo though it ended up making the nsfw Taimanin RPG EN that got shit on for the gem issue recently too. I'm not sure how the Korean team that worked on it was like all too well but they were a relatively small studio so hopefully it isn't as bad as how the rest of Korea's work culture supposedly is like. That said I hope you've been enjoying action Taimanin😌. That game is prolly one of the best things the company has released so far and I'm glad to see it still do well.
@@overworkedsalaryman Woah that's really cool to hear man. TBH I still want to give RPG a shot, but there's just a lot of hesitancy with their drama and apparently they still have a lot of rough edges with bugs and performance on some clients. Maybe because of how rocky their ride has been I'm afraid of EoS but then that also makes me part of the problem lol. It's an all too common spiral for these type of live service/gacha genre.
@@RichDavis13 It seems like they're attempting to push through in spite of the fact that it had a rocky start. That said, we live in an era where pre-year one EoS is becoming increasingly common as the gacha game industry hits saturation so I'd say unless you have a lot of excess money to spend to just wait and see for the first year. If they get to the first annivesary you can consider spending a lil more. Either way the game has a lot of content to catch up on from JP so at the very least management of the title is pretty low cost compared to creating content from scratch like in Taimanin GoGo.
Now if only I could just cast magic for youtube views instead. Though fr I didn't gun for that similarity tbh it just sorta end up being that way in the end 🤣 Not that I mind. Now I just need glasses that can give the same reflective effect and it'll be all good
Glad you enjoy the video! The game is called Yoshinoya. It's a game about working in a Japanese rice bowl store with the same name so you might have to search with the one game in the name or the eatery might turn up instead
@@overworkedsalaryman lmao, thank you so much! Bah! I'm a dumbass I was about to google exactly that "Yoshinoya PS2 waiter game" and I was like "Nah it can't be that obvious" lol. Good videos man! Nice content! Very informative for game devs!
@@eldelnacho lol yea that game felt kinda fitting since the whole game is just about customers raging at the player so I went with it. XD Was looking for other games to use as well which there were some visual novel stype games about being in a black company but ended up being tough to find them after all these years had passed so I settled for this just instead. (Spent like 2 weeks outdoors searching for those games)
Hmm, so unpaid overtime is illegal? How anime is made then. I work for Japanese company and I am not sure how it is possible to meet deadlines. At least when outsource seemingly working 2 hours per day lol.
The anime industry is largely built and supported on the backs of severely exploited animators who work as freelancers or oursource for these companies which is how they get away with a lot of this. Because these people are not considered part of the company, the company isn't obliged on the same level to monitor if these people are working overtime and typically pay them a flat fee at the start to work on something or pay them and amount after per man-hour. This allows them to enforce impossible work conditions at pretty horrible conditions so the company can save money. Additionally, there are so many people in the pool these companies are prepared to use as cannon fodder that many freelance/outsource personnel choose not to declare their overtime so as to make themselves seem more competitive so they can stay in the companies' good graces so they can get more jobs in the future. This is also common practice in many black companies where the same thing is done to hide the fact that people are working overtime or sometimes over the overtime limit so as to avoid paying them for it. The big difference is that because many animators are outsource/freelancers, the company doesn't have the responsibility of telling them not to work overtime or that they legally should declare their overtime so with the industry as oppressive as it is the people in it don't declare and the industry just pockets the difference and goes on. You can find plenty of cases of these from companies like Mappa, Madhouse and the like stretching all the way back to Tezuka when he first made Astro Boy and intentionally took a loss just to get the show aired it's been around for a really long time. Also overtime only starts counting when you go above 40 work-hours a month so if the animator doesn't go above that their work is considered standard working hours so in your example of them working 2-hours a day they would get nowhere close to overtime hours in the first place although odds are they are severely underdeclaring their work hours if anything That said I may not be the biggest expert on the anime on industry itself so there are some points that might be lacking on that in this comment so if you're interested I highly recommend watching some of the videos going into depth into the anime industry as it is one of the strangest and most exploitative industries in the country.
Nice video! I was questioning myself if trying to apply for the same company multiple times, like trying to apply every 3~5 years or so, if this will get you a good or bad view from that company. How do you see this in the industry?
I can't say for certain that this will work for all companies but most recruitment firms generally agree that a 1 year gap is sufficient for the majority of companies so if you really want to just apply you don't have to wait 3 - 5, just send it every year until they ask you to stop since the norm is 1 year anyways. Though when I say 1 year I mean leave a 365 day gap between the 2 applications not do it June this year then Jan next year. I did this for many companies as well and got accepted for an interview with Cygames for 3 years straight for example and the only company that actually asked me to stop was Compile Heart I believe though that was when I was back in university with no work experience so it might've been more due to that as well.
@@overworkedsalaryman Oh thanks so much. I'm from Brazil and studying game development, I'm going to get my degree at the end of 2025. So my plan is to improve my Japanese (still pretty rough) and in 2026 try to apply for a game designer (game planner) job, aiming to work at Square Enix. Another question that I have, for me to start working as a game designer, what level of Japanese do you believe I need to have? Like N3 will be a good start or I have to go beyond that just to start?
@@samuelleie If you're going in as a designer/planner then 2 is recommended since communication is a big part of the job. Are you interested only in working for square? Usually I'd recommend applying to multiple companies instead but if you really want to go only for square then that's fine too. Square does hire globally at least so they prolly aren't as tough but you might need to go through a recruitment firm to smoothen the application
@@overworkedsalaryman my main focus is Square. But if I could take a job at Bandai, Capcom, Atlus or Kojima Production, this would be fine. Or if I could join other studio that makes RPG for getting experience to later try to join Square again, thats fine too.
@@samuelleie All of those were hiring when I hopped jobs last year so there is quite a fair chance. I'd say if you're fine with entering another studio in the short term it'd prolly make going into your end goal companies later on a lot easier. The main issue is likely going to be getting a company to pick you up directly from overseas and approve the visa so you can get in in the first place since only major companies like the ones you mentioned for example are more willing to do it. Once you actually get in and have a visa changing jobs to reapply to Square in the future is a lot easier so depending on how much you want to work in the Japan Game industry specifically v.s working for specific companies in the industry that might be something to consider as well.
I'm glad you got something out of the video! I'd say it isn't as bad as the stereotypes are but at the same time it isn't on the level of certain European nations yet either so I hope it gets better over time and at the same time I hope that more people get to understand how it is like here.
Idk if that was an intentional pun but well played. Yea it's always been an iffy industry to be in even globally. With Japan's work culture it don gone and gotten worse in ways.
I was raised in Singapore - which was technically part of Malaysia at some point - before going to Japan for work after university so in a way you could say I kinda am. 😎
@@StrangeDew it rlly is a very iconic accent in its own way lol. One of those where I can hear it a mile away when I see people in Akiba Shinjuku etc as well
That would benefit them since the minimum wage is also lower in other prefectures as well as the cost of living so there are many savings for them. It's just that because of all the amenities in the bigger more populated cities like Tokyo and Osaka most people don't really want to move out of those cities, even the companies themselves as it tends to make things a lot more inconvenient if they do. In part because many other prefectures don't receive the same level of funding and it gets very difficult to convince the central government full of people in their 70s - 80s to affect that kinda change. That and with the negative population growth many smaller regions are slowly becoming abandoned as the population holds on to trying to just keep the major cities fully functional. That said, some big companies like Yamaha have their own little village factory office space detached from the major cities where they provide the basic necessities. It's just that the social isolation of those areas tends to drive away some people as well since those tend to be 1.5 to 2 hr train rides from the nearest city. It tends to be super cheap for them to set up there it's just that the end result is rather negative for the employees.
@@overworkedsalaryman Makes a lot of sense. Moving to another topic, how Heaven Burns Red is going? I'm a fan of Jun Maeda, but i wouldn't picture Key Visual doing a mobile game even in my wildest dreams.
@e For what it is it's doing masively well. It's consistently in the top 50 mobile games on the sales chart within Japan and was the only reason why the company manage to get out of the red financially. From what I heard the game performed so well that Tencent actually increased their valuation of Visual Arts quite a large bit during their acquisition and within Japan at least this game did help Maeda Jun recover his reputation which apprently fell quite a bit after the Kamisama ni natta hi anime. It really is quite crazy how they managed to pull off such a successful mobile game tho it does feel like especially after this more and more visual novel companies are gonna go into mobile game development which in 2024 feels like a very risky investment compared to before so we'll have to see how it goes.
Good work! love the subject matter. Whenever things like japanese work culture or black companies come up I'm always reminded of a short film called Salaryman 6 czcams.com/video/otWl3Zu1Mr4/video.html I know it may not be as relavent given how old it is. (over 20 years old now) On the subject of pay being low I had a chuckle when it came out that Anycolor/Nijisanji was trying to hire someone as a vtuber manager who they want to be able to speak between 2 and 4 languages for 1,041¥/Hour
I'm glad you enjoyed this video too! Tbh that film hit a lot harder when I was suffering from massive burnout during that one pretty bad job a while back. Like even some of the cuts really hit hard because they mirror a lot of what I felt or was doing at the time too (camera aside that I only got now lol). Though yea stuff like smoking in indoor restaurants certainly is an ancient thing though, that made me laugh a lil since that has become a lot rarer now adays. But yea at least now adays black companies are becoming fewer in number as publicy traded companies have started trying to clean up their act more. WIth the game industry especially it feels like since job mobility is more of a thing more companies have started to clean up their act too in order to pull in the talent to stay competitive though it might be a lil while before it gets more employee friendly.... Also I'm pretty sure that what Anycolor is doing might actually be illegal since even before the minimum wage increase in 2023 the amount they offered is below minimum wage for Tokyo. jsite.mhlw.go.jp/tokyo-roudoukyoku/content/contents/001263942.pdf They could have incorporated in another part of Japan and be trying to use a loophole to evade this since other prefectures have lower minimum wages to reflect the lower costs of living there but since they're headquartered in Tokyo it gives me a ALOT of bad vibes.
Shout out to all the overworked game company staff working overtime and over the weekends to support my gacha events
Those truly were the days. Releasing a new event segment on the weekend hoping to go home immediately after only for it to bug and go into a six hour maintenance. Good times.
justice to all the overworked staff
Great video! I'm glad there's finally someone with a more in-depth knowledge in this area talking about stuff like these, because we don't usually get to see people who's actually working in japan talks about this topic often
I can't wait for part 2 now!
Glad you enjoy the video!
I can imagine that because of how strict many companies are with employee usage of social media and how most people in Japan don't speak English it really doesn't get out of the country much.
Fortunately my current position makes it a lil bit easier to do this now though I'd be sweating if I ever did decide to go back to a big studio
Part 1 is already 50 minutes, I am very much own for this deep dive.
Glad that you enjoyed the video! Wasn't sure how it'd turn out or how long it'd be at first but it's a relief it turn out to be a fun watch!
Thank you for sharing all this! I’ve been curious about how it actually works there as an employee so this was really interesting!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. At times I feel like some parts (though not all unfortunately) of the stereotype that exists within the industry is outdated to some extent so I'm glad that through the video you got to see something interesting!
It's good to be back watching Mr Salaryman's videos. This is a really informative video! Good work!
I'm glad you found it informative! Been thinking of how to do this video for a while to lead up to the future ones so I hope it ends up being an enjoyable watch for you!
This was really interesting and insightful! As someone who works in the industry elsewhere in the world (Aus, NZ, Canada) it's really difficult to get a read on the Japanese industry since all you tend to hear from outside are the horror stories, so it's awesome to get your perspective and some concrete research on the state of the industry.
Looking forward to part 2 :)
Ey, glad to see that people working in the industry elsewhere in the world are seeing this too. To be honest there's always be a part of me that has wanted to try that someday too.
Yea it does feel like a lot of the stories that tend to come out of Japan do tend to be on the bad side and the ways that the industry has been pretty black in the past probably lends to that as well. Nowadays they've cleaned up their act a lot so things are getting better but at the same time, most companies have very draconian restrictions on how their employees are allowed to use social media so I'd imagine the number of people who'd be out there talking about this would be few and far between. To be honest if I ever did go back to a AAA company someday I'd prolly be worried about them finding this channel too tbh. But at least my current position makes it easier for me to talk about stuff like this so I'm glad you enjoyed the video! And thank you for watching.
🙏
the no.1 problem I found when I was working on a game company here in Japan is that , some companies tend to enforce the fixed OT so bad that sometimes, when it's really in rush dev time you'll past the OT fixed time and ended up not being paid. it's so bad that I wish Fixed OT is illegal in this country... and for avg game industry income being 5m yen... that's BS AF lol...
The best case would'be been if fixed OT was just made part of base salary and they just did away with the system altogether yea...
Though that said the company doing that to you I'm pretty sure is actually illegal so that's pretty messed up. Prolly too late to take them to task about that but it is something that would be punished pretty badly by the government if they found out.
I had that experience too when I was working 12 hours a day per week for entire months on end when things got really busy but the company I worked for made me fill up the form for submission to the government and paid the extended OT so it wasn't as bad (monetarily wise at least my health did get pretty bad lol)
Also yea they industry and country wide income really needs to go up especially now
Nice video. Your blue archive one did really well
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yea that one did really crazily better than expected. Feels like it'll be awhile before I ended up with anything that will top it XD
Thanks for the great insider perspective! I'm currently in college and considering whether or not to seek a job in Japan. This has changed my perspective quite a bit. Most stories I hear about job hunting in Japan is terrible and most I've seen are from low-pay English teachers which is unfortunately not a great job. On the other hand, I've also heard many stories about troubles seeking jobs in America despite it being a "entry level" job. It's great to hear that Japan has companies that seek out people to train from the ground up. It's unfortunate that the product suffers, which pains me as a fellow gamer, but I would be thankful for opportunities to grow. Obviously, no company is perfect and stuff like the arubaito treatment and hierarchy is pretty sad. Not saying that American companies don't have kind companies, but it's hard to look past all the job hunting conversations that I've been exposed to. Anways, can't wait to see your next video and take care!
Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching!
I'd say when it comes to considering work in Japan there is a lot to consider since conditions vary massively between companies but on top of that as well as someone moving overseas to work there's alotta social aspects to consider.
That one would be in a country where the locals all only speak a non-english language and some are still very unused to the difference in culture that comes with working with someone from another country since many companies, especially small ones, have been largely homogeneous for a long time so some older people get really used to how to handle people within the Japanese culture context and get confused or just more shy among others. So to some extent some people do end up feeling a lil more lonely but that could be a thing with working overseas in general and not a Japan only thing.
Though of course there are a lot of fun and interesting things to do too like all the anime events going on year round
@@overworkedsalaryman Appreciate the response! Events and the goods is probably the biggest draw for me. I pretty much live my live mostly by myself anyways so it's not a big deal for me. Though the biggest challenge is probably all the keigo and careful wording. I did take a class in it before, and I got to say its hard to get my head around especially when I don't use it in my everyday currently LOL.
@@mottower
No worries! Thank you for replying if anything and yea don't worry. Keigo, especially business level son-keigo and kenjogo are so stupidly complicated that even most Japanese people don't understand it since it isn't really covered in the syllabus. So even if you can't do it perfectly most companies will understand.
Especially since you're coming from overseas most companies would prolly be quite understanding unless you're planning for jobs in the service sector then it gets really tough. I'd say more important to getting better is to speak with confidence and focus on trying to get your thoughts across concisely rather than on being as polite as possible.
If people can understand what you want to get across it's easier for them to help point out better words for the situation rather than if a person were to stumble on getting the point across. Also idk how easy it'd be to find a small community of people who want to speak Japanese there but if you can find one it'd be a good way to gather together people who can practice together.
*cracks knuckles* "alright, let's find some time in the day to sit down and watch a movie"
but no fr lol, thanks for the vid, I'll make the time to watch Mr. BA man's serial documentary making habit later today
Apologies that it ended up so long I can stop anytime I swear 🙏
Though lol fr I promise the vid lengths will go back to normal soon, the recent ones really did end up being a lil longer on average than I expected them too. That said I hope you enjoy the video nonetheless!
Thank you very much for this informative video. Hopefully we can see postive changes throughout the industry
I'm glad you enjoyed the video 🙇
I hope so too so we can finally move toward a more sustainable and hopefully more innovation focused future for the industry.
🙏
@@overworkedsalaryman you are very correct. Rather than focusing only on growth, focusing on being sustainable will ensure longevity. If you are keeping up with the current controversy regarding that “consulting” company, I hope that it hasn’t affected the small and independent Japanese game makers. That plus the localization issue has really put a very big spotlight on the games industry.
First time viewer and greatly enjoyed the video. Gave me a much better understanding of Japanese work culture and let me differentiate between stereotype and reality.
Checked the title of some of your other videos and want to ask you thoughts on the impact gacha had on the jp game dev scene. Whether it’s positive or negative, how it forced the industry to change, players/parents/gov reaction, …etc. I follow yahtzee’s (of zero punctuation, now fully ramblomatic, fame) framework of treating (single player) games as “Art” and a way to explore different emotional experiences, thus gacha stand in direct opposition to what I think games should be. I understand the team probably poured a lot of work into the games they support, but I can not shake how they milk players/what most of them stand for and would like another perspective coming from an industry insider. I am vaguely familiar with the Chinese game dev scene and know that gacha/microtransactions basically choke out most indie opportunities. However, I’m wondering what effects gacha had a scene that was much more vibrant and full of indie spirit to begin with.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
I would say that is a question that would require a very long answer which I plan go into deeper depth in a segment of a later part of the series but to put it in what would fit in a youtube comment reply:
It has had both positive & negative impacts and it's hard to say definitively which it is since:
1. Some genres of games are just no longer as financially viable anymore (i.e Visual Novels) so companies that make those either have to run on a skeleton crew to stay profitable or venture out of their comfort zone to survive and for those companies, starting a gacha game is the easiest transition as they try to get into other genres since it's a genre that is lighter on mechanics & systems and management of the game can be outsourced. So in a sense it has positives in this regard since it helps preserve genres that are struggling now as a way for these companies to fund their less profitable work for the people who do enjoy it while also giving companies breathing space to explore other genres for something to transition into in the future.
2. At the same time it has also ended up becoming quite a money sink now in that some companies are literally burning money chasing a style of game that is arguably only really profitable for the top 10% or less. To make a successful gacha game now is extremely cost intensive especially in the marketing & design department & companies have burnt bucketloads of money producing games that definetly do not recoup and this means that money that could've gone into innovating new games is also going into projects with a low success rate because they see the potential money at the top but don't see how difficult it is to get there.
3. This point might seem a little mean-spirited but in a way the talent pool in the industry has also become muddled since a lot of people experienced in live ops now are being thrown into development with only live ops experience and expected to make or lead creation of high quality development titles which leads to at times the quality of the game falling instead due to the lack of experience in what they need to do. There are more people in the industry now thanks to gacha games but at the same time there are many in the game industry with no development experience at all which becomes a problem when trying to develop new innovative titles.
4. When it comes to gacha and indie it's tough to say whether it's 100% a bad thing since it does give many indie or smaller companies a base to make something simpler that has the chance to earn a lot and fund their making their future passion projects as well and many big companies do pay these companies to just develop the game and not run in so it does create some level of a springboard for indie companies to gain experience. Though of course at the same time one could argue that it might stifle the innovation of these smaller firms as they end up taking orders instead of creating something wholly original instead but that I feel really depends more on the company in question. Cygames ain't a small company but they started in gacha and using all the money they earned have now transitioned out and turned into an animation studio + consumer game maker and arguably a company expanding out it multiple fields like that would've been tough if not for their start in a position that earned them a lot of money.
On a seperate note, Indie in Japan has always been a little iffy since to begin with there has been a long-term patent war in the game industry here which I would argue has strangled indie innovation before gacha games have had the chance to. While it isn't non-existant, indie here is not that massive nowadays simply because it's a lot harder to take risks with new systems when a much bigger company with a blanket patent from 10 years ago among their 2,000 patents might slap that patent in the indie group's face and threaten lawsuit.
As for my personal stance I do not like how gacha is being used as widespread as it is in mobile games and would rather we move away from gacha as a form of monetisation eventually but at the same time I don't wish for the gacha games that exist now to just disappear overnight since these games are bringing people joy with what they have to offer aside from the gacha. As wishful as it is I would hope to see them use the money to transition into making something non-gachaish either as a mix-media IP or into other genres in the future and let the IP they've cultivated grow into something bigger to be less reliant on the gacha game. Which is why I sometimes say if one supports the IP to not spend on the gacha but on stuff like goods instead and basically show the company that they can earn, just not from the gacha and that there are people who would support their endevours into other genres instead. That and it would serve to steer other companies away from creating games with a gacha in the future which would be great too.
Though admittedly it'd be tough since we live in an environment where there are a segment of people who actually do get a power trip from whaling. I know a few people like that irl too so yea...
Personally I'd love to see more innovation in the game industry too in terms of making unique and fun experiencess with a reasonable price but if we wanna get there there's still a lot more work that needs to be done
@overworkedsalaryman thanks for the response. The answer is honestly quite detailed and I appreciate it. Maybe you can include/build on some of these points in the next part if it fits. :)
I really love these kind of videos from you, due to the fact that you have not only an understanding on Japanese sources and websites, but also the first hand accounts you can personally make. Because I feel like most of the things are pretty much biased or skewed in one way or the other mostly due to most English youtubers taking sources from interviews or third party sources, so in all seriousness I watched all of this video and look forward to more/
I'm truly glad that you enjoy this style of videos. 🙏
It's a lil more serious than the usual videos I upload but like the other video types it's one that I wanna leave as a
One of the videos I remembering watching that slowly made me feel more like making this video was one about shadowing a day in the life of a colopl employee.
In large part because when I saw those types of videos it struck a disonnance within me between what I know the common employee in those companies were working through and what the videos portrayed. I wouldn't fault the youtuber since they did the most they could with the style of video that they wanted to do and it painted the industry very positively which makes me happy since I work in it but at the same time I don't want people entering the industry with the wrong impression and then suffering.
At the same time it makes it harder to explain the issues with the game industry here when it is painted overly positively as well so I hoped to at least release a video that is more balanced as a pre-amble to the rest of the videos explaining the state of the industry more later on. So hopefully the future videos end up being entertaining too
Woo! New Salaryman video! I'm glad to hear that the work culture there is getting better, even if it's a slow change. It's interesting that companies used to (and still do) report working days off... weekends and public holidays are just assumed a normal thing in North America. Though that one company that had "150" sounded really enticing (though I'm not sure if it said 150 days off or something else)
Excited to see what part 2 will bring!
Yea it really is odd how what the law stipulates and what people actually perceive as an off-day in Japan now has a dissonance to it in due to the 40hr a week + 1 guaranteed day off stipulation works.
Here's hoping one day we get flex hours and more companies adopting hybrid work weeks too.
You are extremely well spoken on these issues. Thanks for the info.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and that it managed to bring to you something of value.🙇
These are things I had to live through to some extent so it makes it easier to talk about. With the next few parts in the series it'll prolly end up going into more analysis off of some of these points and how they affect the game industry's performance so idk how it'll go yet but I hope those will bring you something of interest too!
I love Galneyrus.
Galneryus is really awesome yea. Been listening since before they swapped vocalists but ultimate sacrifice was a great album too. Glad to hear from another based galneryus enjoyer though
gotta get this video into the algorithm wave, love this video a ton!
Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully the rng gods favor it.
Thanks a lot for the video. I am a student soon will graduate my uni. I always planned to work in game industry after getting a master's degree, or even maybe without it. I was also curious about Japan's gaming industry, so yeah it was very informative and interesting. Will be waiting for part 2)
Glad you enjoyed the video! With the game industry I'd say if you plan to get a masters before entering the game industry if your degree is in an unrelated industry, at least picking up Unity or UE and making something simple on your own would look good for your portfolio.
Especially since you'd look more competitive than the average person not from a game design university. If you are from one then you're prolly already good to go.
If you plan to work in Japan in the future... the game industry isn't all too bad although it really depends on what type of company you wanna enter though in general with worklife in Japan depending on where you're from it could either be a big step up or down (Was really surprised when I heard how much better protection is available for workers in the UK)
As always great video my dude
I'm glad you enjoyed the video this time too!
I am a software engineer in the US I am actually going to be in Japan for 2 years, I know this is specific to the games industry but I do think it is this could be sort of analogous, and it is very interesting! Also, I love the n64, does yours work? mine broke years ago.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I hope the two years you are going to be working in Japan ends up being peaceful & not too tough and that you enjoy the time staying in Japan. 🙏
That and I hope the company is paying you in USD still it'll make life in Japan very very affordable right now.
Some points run quite similar to how things are in other industries as well indeed as you said. With the video I just didn't wanna come of as speaking for all industries especially since there are many that are both doing worse and better than the game industry so I didn't wanna generalise things in the video in a way that might take away from their experience. Hence why I went with a more zoomed in perspective instead.
That said the N64 still works yea! The issue now is getting a monitor to actually use it on as my previous one broke down or to figure out how to use a capture card with it so I can just play it on the pc instead.
@@overworkedsalaryman Oh using a capture card is a good idea, an older elgato should have composite capture, might be a good place to look into that monitor adapter! And if for some reason I see you in Tokyo I will be sure to say hello haha
@@SensoTaiFor sure. If I happen to be free when that happens I'd be glad to show you around the area as well. o7
But yea I guess getting an elagato might be the easier way huh... time to get saving
go off
I'm sorry I don't know what those words mean on their own @.@ but I hope you enjoyed the video at least 🙏
@@overworkedsalaryman
It just means I appreciate your content! 😊
@@eruno_ Ooooooh. I'm glad you enjoy the content then! 🙇
I'll remember that term for next time ✏️
Interesting. You mentioned Gremory Games. I'm actually currently playing Action Taimanin for a few weeks now and it's been pretty enjoyable. What did you work on? Is industry working culture actually different because it is Korean based?
I worked on RPG, RPG's EN version for a few months earlier in its development & on GoGo's initial draft.
One thing to note though is that Gremory isn't the Korean dev that initially worked on Action Taimanin. The team that did isn't credited for the game itself as they were contracted to produce the game for Gremory which is technically a subsidiary of Infibrain but is really just the same company as staff were interchangeable between the two. It is used as a seperate hiring arm for the supposed family friendly arm of Infibrain which was supposed to produce more titles like Action Taimanin & GoGo though it ended up making the nsfw Taimanin RPG EN that got shit on for the gem issue recently too.
I'm not sure how the Korean team that worked on it was like all too well but they were a relatively small studio so hopefully it isn't as bad as how the rest of Korea's work culture supposedly is like.
That said I hope you've been enjoying action Taimanin😌. That game is prolly one of the best things the company has released so far and I'm glad to see it still do well.
@@overworkedsalaryman Woah that's really cool to hear man. TBH I still want to give RPG a shot, but there's just a lot of hesitancy with their drama and apparently they still have a lot of rough edges with bugs and performance on some clients. Maybe because of how rocky their ride has been I'm afraid of EoS but then that also makes me part of the problem lol. It's an all too common spiral for these type of live service/gacha genre.
@@RichDavis13 It seems like they're attempting to push through in spite of the fact that it had a rocky start. That said, we live in an era where pre-year one EoS is becoming increasingly common as the gacha game industry hits saturation so I'd say unless you have a lot of excess money to spend to just wait and see for the first year. If they get to the first annivesary you can consider spending a lil more. Either way the game has a lot of content to catch up on from JP so at the very least management of the title is pretty low cost compared to creating content from scratch like in Taimanin GoGo.
....I genuinely mean this in the least offensive way I can cause I love this show. I think you look like Isekai Ojisan.
Now if only I could just cast magic for youtube views instead.
Though fr I didn't gun for that similarity tbh it just sorta end up being that way in the end 🤣
Not that I mind. Now I just need glasses that can give the same reflective effect and it'll be all good
nice video, very informative!
Could you please give me the name of that waiter game you show in some parts? Thank you!
Glad you enjoy the video!
The game is called Yoshinoya. It's a game about working in a Japanese rice bowl store with the same name so you might have to search with the one game in the name or the eatery might turn up instead
In case you're wondering, that place is an actual chain fast food rice bowl place in Japan
@@overworkedsalaryman lmao, thank you so much! Bah! I'm a dumbass I was about to google exactly that "Yoshinoya PS2 waiter game" and I was like "Nah it can't be that obvious" lol. Good videos man! Nice content! Very informative for game devs!
@@eldelnacho lol yea that game felt kinda fitting since the whole game is just about customers raging at the player so I went with it. XD
Was looking for other games to use as well which there were some visual novel stype games about being in a black company but ended up being tough to find them after all these years had passed so I settled for this just instead. (Spent like 2 weeks outdoors searching for those games)
Hmm, so unpaid overtime is illegal? How anime is made then. I work for Japanese company and I am not sure how it is possible to meet deadlines. At least when outsource seemingly working 2 hours per day lol.
Important note that I'm remote worker, but I am still a full time employee.
The anime industry is largely built and supported on the backs of severely exploited animators who work as freelancers or oursource for these companies which is how they get away with a lot of this.
Because these people are not considered part of the company, the company isn't obliged on the same level to monitor if these people are working overtime and typically pay them a flat fee at the start to work on something or pay them and amount after per man-hour. This allows them to enforce impossible work conditions at pretty horrible conditions so the company can save money.
Additionally, there are so many people in the pool these companies are prepared to use as cannon fodder that many freelance/outsource personnel choose not to declare their overtime so as to make themselves seem more competitive so they can stay in the companies' good graces so they can get more jobs in the future. This is also common practice in many black companies where the same thing is done to hide the fact that people are working overtime or sometimes over the overtime limit so as to avoid paying them for it. The big difference is that because many animators are outsource/freelancers, the company doesn't have the responsibility of telling them not to work overtime or that they legally should declare their overtime so with the industry as oppressive as it is the people in it don't declare and the industry just pockets the difference and goes on.
You can find plenty of cases of these from companies like Mappa, Madhouse and the like stretching all the way back to Tezuka when he first made Astro Boy and intentionally took a loss just to get the show aired it's been around for a really long time.
Also overtime only starts counting when you go above 40 work-hours a month so if the animator doesn't go above that their work is considered standard working hours so in your example of them working 2-hours a day they would get nowhere close to overtime hours in the first place although odds are they are severely underdeclaring their work hours if anything
That said I may not be the biggest expert on the anime on industry itself so there are some points that might be lacking on that in this comment so if you're interested I highly recommend watching some of the videos going into depth into the anime industry as it is one of the strangest and most exploitative industries in the country.
Nice video! I was questioning myself if trying to apply for the same company multiple times, like trying to apply every 3~5 years or so, if this will get you a good or bad view from that company. How do you see this in the industry?
I can't say for certain that this will work for all companies but most recruitment firms generally agree that a 1 year gap is sufficient for the majority of companies so if you really want to just apply you don't have to wait 3 - 5, just send it every year until they ask you to stop since the norm is 1 year anyways. Though when I say 1 year I mean leave a 365 day gap between the 2 applications not do it June this year then Jan next year.
I did this for many companies as well and got accepted for an interview with Cygames for 3 years straight for example and the only company that actually asked me to stop was Compile Heart I believe though that was when I was back in university with no work experience so it might've been more due to that as well.
@@overworkedsalaryman Oh thanks so much. I'm from Brazil and studying game development, I'm going to get my degree at the end of 2025. So my plan is to improve my Japanese (still pretty rough) and in 2026 try to apply for a game designer (game planner) job, aiming to work at Square Enix.
Another question that I have, for me to start working as a game designer, what level of Japanese do you believe I need to have? Like N3 will be a good start or I have to go beyond that just to start?
@@samuelleie If you're going in as a designer/planner then 2 is recommended since communication is a big part of the job. Are you interested only in working for square? Usually I'd recommend applying to multiple companies instead but if you really want to go only for square then that's fine too.
Square does hire globally at least so they prolly aren't as tough but you might need to go through a recruitment firm to smoothen the application
@@overworkedsalaryman my main focus is Square. But if I could take a job at Bandai, Capcom, Atlus or Kojima Production, this would be fine. Or if I could join other studio that makes RPG for getting experience to later try to join Square again, thats fine too.
@@samuelleie All of those were hiring when I hopped jobs last year so there is quite a fair chance. I'd say if you're fine with entering another studio in the short term it'd prolly make going into your end goal companies later on a lot easier.
The main issue is likely going to be getting a company to pick you up directly from overseas and approve the visa so you can get in in the first place since only major companies like the ones you mentioned for example are more willing to do it. Once you actually get in and have a visa changing jobs to reapply to Square in the future is a lot easier so depending on how much you want to work in the Japan Game industry specifically v.s working for specific companies in the industry that might be something to consider as well.
I somehow came out of this video having a much more positive opinion about Japanese work culture than what is usually propagated as common knowledge.
I'm glad you got something out of the video!
I'd say it isn't as bad as the stereotypes are but at the same time it isn't on the level of certain European nations yet either so I hope it gets better over time and at the same time I hope that more people get to understand how it is like here.
Games biz has always had a funky vibe, but japan is natto.
Idk if that was an intentional pun but well played.
Yea it's always been an iffy industry to be in even globally. With Japan's work culture it don gone and gotten worse in ways.
your english sounds malaysian, is my dude from malaysia?
I was raised in Singapore - which was technically part of Malaysia at some point - before going to Japan for work after university so in a way you could say I kinda am. 😎
Woah... Are you... Are you Singaporean?
Was born and raised there before going over to Japan for work yea. Can imagine my accent from being raised in sg really would stick XD
@@overworkedsalaryman it took me a moment to clock the accent hahaha
@@StrangeDew it rlly is a very iconic accent in its own way lol. One of those where I can hear it a mile away when I see people in Akiba Shinjuku etc as well
Wouldn't be better for companies to move away from Tokyo and pay lower rent?
That would benefit them since the minimum wage is also lower in other prefectures as well as the cost of living so there are many savings for them.
It's just that because of all the amenities in the bigger more populated cities like Tokyo and Osaka most people don't really want to move out of those cities, even the companies themselves as it tends to make things a lot more inconvenient if they do. In part because many other prefectures don't receive the same level of funding and it gets very difficult to convince the central government full of people in their 70s - 80s to affect that kinda change.
That and with the negative population growth many smaller regions are slowly becoming abandoned as the population holds on to trying to just keep the major cities fully functional.
That said, some big companies like Yamaha have their own little village factory office space detached from the major cities where they provide the basic necessities. It's just that the social isolation of those areas tends to drive away some people as well since those tend to be 1.5 to 2 hr train rides from the nearest city. It tends to be super cheap for them to set up there it's just that the end result is rather negative for the employees.
@@overworkedsalaryman Makes a lot of sense.
Moving to another topic, how Heaven Burns Red is going? I'm a fan of Jun Maeda, but i wouldn't picture Key Visual doing a mobile game even in my wildest dreams.
@e For what it is it's doing masively well. It's consistently in the top 50 mobile games on the sales chart within Japan and was the only reason why the company manage to get out of the red financially.
From what I heard the game performed so well that Tencent actually increased their valuation of Visual Arts quite a large bit during their acquisition and within Japan at least this game did help Maeda Jun recover his reputation which apprently fell quite a bit after the Kamisama ni natta hi anime.
It really is quite crazy how they managed to pull off such a successful mobile game tho it does feel like especially after this more and more visual novel companies are gonna go into mobile game development which in 2024 feels like a very risky investment compared to before so we'll have to see how it goes.
Good work! love the subject matter.
Whenever things like japanese work culture or black companies come up I'm always reminded of a short film called Salaryman 6
czcams.com/video/otWl3Zu1Mr4/video.html
I know it may not be as relavent given how old it is. (over 20 years old now)
On the subject of pay being low I had a chuckle when it came out that Anycolor/Nijisanji was trying to hire someone as a vtuber manager who they want to be able to speak between 2 and 4 languages for 1,041¥/Hour
I'm glad you enjoyed this video too!
Tbh that film hit a lot harder when I was suffering from massive burnout during that one pretty bad job a while back. Like even some of the cuts really hit hard because they mirror a lot of what I felt or was doing at the time too (camera aside that I only got now lol). Though yea stuff like smoking in indoor restaurants certainly is an ancient thing though, that made me laugh a lil since that has become a lot rarer now adays.
But yea at least now adays black companies are becoming fewer in number as publicy traded companies have started trying to clean up their act more. WIth the game industry especially it feels like since job mobility is more of a thing more companies have started to clean up their act too in order to pull in the talent to stay competitive though it might be a lil while before it gets more employee friendly....
Also I'm pretty sure that what Anycolor is doing might actually be illegal since even before the minimum wage increase in 2023 the amount they offered is below minimum wage for Tokyo.
jsite.mhlw.go.jp/tokyo-roudoukyoku/content/contents/001263942.pdf
They could have incorporated in another part of Japan and be trying to use a loophole to evade this since other prefectures have lower minimum wages to reflect the lower costs of living there but since they're headquartered in Tokyo it gives me a ALOT of bad vibes.