Nintendo employs surprisingly high ratio of master’s and PhD graduates in Japan, independent research suggests 

An investigation into the educational backgrounds of employees of Japanese console game developers by industry blogger Papen found that Nintendo employs a surprisingly high number of staff with advanced degrees. 

Papen dug through publicly available information on game developers hired between 2000 and 2023, sourcing things like dev blogs, graduation exhibitions, and interviews to verify their educational backgrounds. Out of 60 Nintendo employees they looked at, 21 were master’s or PhD graduates. Although Papen cautions that his sample may be somewhat biased towards employees who have already made contributions to the company, the figure is significant given that Japan’s average graduate school progression rates are low (according to MEXT, it was 14.2% for men and 5.6% for women in 2020). 

“It’s said that Japan has relatively few graduate degree holders compared to other countries, which hurts our technological competitiveness, but Nintendo seems to be home to a large number of PhD and master’s degree holders, who are rumored to be both few in numbers and have difficulty finding employment.” As Papen points out, there is a tendency for advanced degree holders to be avoided by employers in Japan due to factors such as high starting wages and lateness in joining the job market (many companies are still big on seniority). It’s possible that not only does Nintendo not filter out candidates in this way, but actively seeks to attract them. For example, the company is very transparent about differences in starting wages deepening on academic background. 

As Papen details, most of Nintendo’s grad school hires had master’s degrees, but there were also some PhDs. One engineering doctorate he highlights was involved in creating the Switch’s HD Rumble feature. Artists tended to come from art universities like Tama Art University or Tokyo University of the Arts, while programmers mostly came from science and engineering departments. By contrast, game designers had much more varied educational backgrounds, with no obviously favored field.