Sega is raising Japanese employees’ salaries again, three years after its previous increase
The company wants to give staff “peace of mind amid… rising prices”
Sega has announced that it will be raising employee salaries again, three years after its last salary increase.
In a press release the company said it would be revising the salary levels of full-time employees at its Japanese subsidiary, and would be raising the starting salary for new employees.
According to Sega, the increase has two purposes (via machine translation): “creating an environment in which employees can work with peace of mind amid recent social changes such as rising prices”, and “recruiting and developing attractive human resources to strengthen global competitiveness”.
Starting on April 1, 2026, existing full-time employees will have their base salaries raised by an average of around 10%. It will do this by incorporating part of its bonus system into the base pay, and revising its compensation system to make it more flexible depending on the employee’s role.
As a result of this change to base salary, the new starting salary for university graduates joining Sega will increase by 10% from ¥300,000 ($1,937) per month to ¥330,000 ($2,130).
“We believe that human resources are essential to achieving our mission and creating and providing new value, and we are working to reform our personnel system in various ways to ensure that employees can maximize their potential in a comfortable working environment,” Sega said in a statement.
“In addition to establishing a compensation system that rewards employees according to their roles and contributions, we are also working to expand measures that support working styles that allow each employee to live the life that suits them best, such as the Fami+ System, which supports childcare and nursing care, and the Job+ System, which supports side jobs aimed at creating new innovations.”
This is the second time in recent years that Sega has increased the base salary for new employees. In July 2023 the base salary was increased by 35%, from ¥222,000 ($1,433) to ¥300,000 ($1,937). At the time, ¥300,000 was worth $2,225, demonstrating how the weaker yen is leading to rising prices in Japan.
Numerous other Japanese companies have increased their average salaries in recent years. Last April, FromSoftware increased its employees’ average base salary by an average of 11.8%, increasing the starting salary for new graduates from ¥260,000 ($1,678) to ¥300,000 ($1,937).
Earlier this year Capcom also increased its starting salary to ¥300,000 ($1,937), up 25% from its previous new graduate hire pay of ¥235,000 ($1,517). Current employees (including those who joined in the 2024 fiscal year) were also given a “one-time special payment”, which Capcom described as “an investment in the people who support the future of the company”.
