JPtheNeurotic Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 “I got off a plane instantly making double what I made in Japan. I went from working 60+ hour weeks for 5 years on Scalebound (and sometimes more like 80-90) to working 40s. And I've never had to replace a lead in the US because they were hospitalized with stress related illness.” “I miss the food. I miss the people. I miss the beautiful country… But if anyone thinks for a second that labor practices in Japan are not atrocious even on their best day, you are buying PR and your own nostalgia for games you love.” ”I talk about going back all the time... I'm sure I will one day. And I know my exact conditions - a Western company on an ex-pat package, or I run the studio. Unless there is major cultural change, I would never work at a Japanese company in Japan again. Too much life to live.” Discussions of crunch and working conditions Have been talked about pretty heavily in the last several years but it’s not something I see talked about a lot from the Japanese side outside of Nintendo who seems to try to avoid it . I assume the language barrier makes it harder for reporting to come throgh but I am reminded of hearing From Software having low pay (I think ) and of course , crunch . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eraezr Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 I can believe this. The discourse on crunch culture only picked up with western voices talking about their experiences. With Japanese culture, there would be reservation to rock the boat on how unfairly difficult the workloads can be. Happens in the anime and manga industry too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozalia1 Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 As bad as it might seem to us, it is part of Japanese culture. Additionally as we know it happens in the West itself anyway, and while more progress has been made against it in the West because people can say it ain't 'right' or 'normal', in Japan it is seen as normal so... you're not going to look great over there complaining about it when so many others are experiencing the same thing and just have to take it. As stated by @Eraezr, it is even worse in other industries so having developers complaining would look especially bad. For that to change you either need the government to force it or for many industries all at once to stand in unity with one another. That is the standard response to this issue anyway. The actual real reason is Nintendo is in the country and other studios in their aspiration are putting their workers doing double the hours in the hopes of matching Nintendo's quality. Like one of those old parables, they fail to realise that putting in so many more hours actually only gets them further away from their goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrZero_1983 Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 In his next post he will state how water is wet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPtheNeurotic Posted October 4, 2023 Author Share Posted October 4, 2023 Jesus… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreakon13 Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 (edited) 9 hours ago, JPtheNeurotic said: Jesus… As much as I want to be shocked by this... at my last job, it was very unusual to leave at 5-5:30pm. You'd see a good chunk of people still there at 8-9pm on a daily basis (which of course also meant I was still there at 8-9pm). When I started at my current job, I had that exact same reaction for probably the first month or two when everyone actually got up and left at exactly 5pm. While it's not exactly a bad mentality to have, proper home/work life balance is important... I think there's kind of an anti-work movement these days outright vilifying the idea of putting more than 8 hours a day (if that) into your job or career. Which does kinda say something about the work ethic of younger people entering the work force... and I guess the potential economic repercussions of the kind of output a country and/or its people like that generates. Japanese culture tends to put pride in the country above the individual, so working themselves to death in hopes of contributing to it makes sense in a troubling way. Edited October 4, 2023 by Dreakon13 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CelestialRequiem Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 Japan has the worst of these sort of problems in the First World, and it isn't exclusive to gaming. Many media companies have this issue; especially in animation. Culturally, this sort of commitment to your work life is starting to become myopic. With a dwindling population, the last thing people in Japan need are work weeks that exceed their free time. The pay is lower in Japan, largely because the cost of living isn't as as high as nations such as the USA, but it's hard to build investments and a future for retirement. If it wasn't for the incredible healthcare, cheaper expenses as well as me having more natural interests, I wouldn't be looking to move back to Japan. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Chipotle Posted October 5, 2023 Share Posted October 5, 2023 In the end its all about cultural differences, you can also see this in sports like baseball where they demand 150% of time and life in order to play and 200% to play at pro level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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