{"id":55858,"date":"2026-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=55858"},"modified":"2026-01-16T18:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:50:36","slug":"almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japanese entertainment organization CESA (Computer Entertainment Supplier\u2019s Association) published its \u201cGame Developer Employment and Career Formation 2025<\/strong>\u201d report on January 6, 2026. As reported by Game Makers<\/a>, the document<\/a> compiles findings based on CESA\u2019s survey on the working environment of domestic game developers, conducted during last year’s CEDEC (Computer Entertainment Developers Conference). The research is based on data provided by 339 commercial game developers, educators and university students in the field. One interesting trend that the report brought to light was an overall rise in average annual income across the Japanese video game industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the survey reveals, the average annual household income of game developers from January to December 2024 was around 8.3 million yen (approximately $52.5k USD), with the average individual yearly income being about 6.7 million yen (approximately $42.3k USD). Additionally, 77.9% of respondents reported that their annual income had increased compared to 2023. Out of all survey participants, 19.5% said that their average yearly income increased by over 20%, followed by 14.5% whose income rose by more than 10%, and 18.6% whose income rose by more than 5%. Lastly, 25.4% of respondents reported a 0-5% rise. On the other hand, only 6.8% of developers participating in the survey reported that their yearly income had dropped compared to 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graph
Graph showcasing the changes in developers’ average income in 2024.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, CESA also concludes that the industry is showing a \u201chigh workforce mobility,\u201d as the majority of interviewed developers \u2013 55.2% of them to be precise \u2013 have said that they have experienced switching employers (which is generally less common in Japan than in countries like the US). Furthermore, when it comes to job tenure, 36.0% of respondents said that they\u2019d been working at their current company for 3 years or less, and 26.0% of said that they\u2019d been working at their current company between 3 and 6 years. Finally, 13.6% of respondents said that their current tenure was between six and 9 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, CESA released a preview of their 2025 Video Game Industry Report during last year\u2019s Tokyo Game Show, revealing some interesting tidbits on the current state of domestic video game companies. Among other things, the report tackled the topic of AI technology and generative AI, revealing that more than half of surveyed companies use generative AI during development<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 20 Japanese game companies based on average yearly income revealed. Nintendo ranks third\u00a0
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sega raises starting salaries for new hires and base pay of existing full-time employees in Japan (again)\u00a0
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CESA published the results of its CEDEC 2025 survey on the working environment of domestic game developers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":55860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[261,17],"class_list":["post-55858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-financial-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlmost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CESA published the results of its CEDEC 2025 survey on the working environment of domestic game developers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CESA published the results of its CEDEC 2025 survey on the working environment of domestic game developers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260116-55858-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"CESA published the results of its CEDEC 2025 survey on the working environment of domestic game developers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"CESA published the results of its CEDEC 2025 survey on the working environment of domestic game developers.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-01-16T15:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260116-55858-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0110or\u0111e P","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0110or\u0111e P","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/"},"author":{"name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696"},"headline":"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report","datePublished":"2026-01-16T15:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/"},"wordCount":415,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260116-55858-header.jpg","keywords":["Financial News","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/","name":"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260116-55858-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-16T15:00:00+00:00","description":"CESA published the results of its CEDEC 2025 survey on the working environment of domestic game developers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260116-55858-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260116-55858-header.jpg","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-80-of-japanese-game-developers-say-their-annual-income-has-increased-in-the-past-year-according-to-cedec-survey-report\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Almost 80% of Japanese game developers say their annual income has increased in the past year, according to CEDEC survey report"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696","name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","caption":"\u0110or\u0111e P"},"description":"Automaton West Editor","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/djordje-p\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55863,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55858\/revisions\/55863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}