The Nikkei and MyNavi recently published a survey on the most desired employers among Japanese university and graduate students expected to graduate and begin working in March 2026. The results show that Konami has seen a sharp rise in popularity over the past year.
Conducted between October 2024 and March 2025, the survey had a sample size of over 25,000 liberal arts students and over 10,000 sciences students (results are also separated accordingly).
Among companies relevant to the game industry, the most popular employer among liberal arts majors this year was Bandai Namco, which ranked 9th. The company maintained a similar level of popularity to last year, when it placed 10th.
Konami, on the other hand, rose significantly compared to last year, jumping from 31st to 10th. The company’s sudden boost in popularity has caused some confusion even among Japanese users, but it may be worth noting that, in addition to reporting record breaking profits this fiscal year, Konami has also been consistently raising its starting salaries and has made a point of sending the message “we still care about human talent,” which may have been contributing factors. According to the survey, the top reasons respondents chose Konami was “It’s stable” (18.7%) and “It’s at the top of its industry” (16.1%).
Other notable companies among liberal arts students included Sega at 13th (down from last year’s 8th) and Nintendo at 17th (up from 29th last year).
Meanwhile, the employer rankings for science students were topped by Sony, holding the number one spot for both this year and last. Sega and Nintendo also ranked well among science students, coming in at 11th and 15th, respectively. Interestingly, among the 49 companies in the ranking, Bandai Namco was most frequently selected for the reason “I feel like I’ll be able to do the work I like” (17.5%).
