Lots of Japanese parents want their kids to work for Nintendo, but not just for the money, survey says

Only one company was a more popular pick among parents and grandparents.

Japan isn’t completely without rhetoric to the effect of “Video games are bad for kids and will rot their brains.” Kids are banned from many arcades after a certain time of night, and one prefecture actually has an official ordinance limiting how much time minors are legally allowed to spend playing video games.

But there are also plenty of adults who see the video game industry not just as suitable entertainment for their kids, but also a desirable place to work, at least if they’re working for Nintendo.

Tokyo credit management company Risk Monster recently released the results of its annual Organizations Where I Want my Children/Grandchildren to Work survey. Responses were collected from 800 participants, 200 with a son, 200 with a daughter, 200 with a grandson, and 200 with a granddaughter (all children currently under 18 years old).

As is usually the case with such surveys, civil service jobs were the top choices, with national government and regional government jobs together accounting for over 25 percent of response. In third place was Toyota, but following the car manufacturer, the second-most hoped-for private company for the respondents’ offspring to work for was Nintendo.

● I want my child/grandchild to work for
1. National government: 16 percent
2. Regional government: 13.3 percent
3. Toyota: 10.8 percent
4. Nintendo: 6.9 percent
5. Panasonic: 5.4 percent

Nintendo probably owes its popularity in the poll to two key factors. First, it has a family friendly image, so it’s a company that parents and grandparents are aware of, and their kids/grandkids are likely fans of. Nintendo has also, during the Switch era, been hugely successful economically. “My kids like this company’s products, and the company itself is creative and in good financial shape” is an attractive combination, and that’s before adding in the extra pride and admiration many people feel in Japan when one of the country’s companies rises to the highest levels of a global industry, as Nintendo has done.

▼ The Switch has been a critical and commercial success pretty much from Day 1.

Rounding out the top 10 were Apple (5.3 percent), the highest-ranking foreign-headquartered company, trading companies Mitsubishi Shoji (4.8 percent) and Itochu Shoji (4.4 percent), Sony (4.1 percent), and Japan Airlines/JAL (3.9 percent).

As for why PlayStation-maker Sony didn’t rank quite as high as Nintendo, a likely factor is that Sony isn’t strictly a game company, and so it gets affected by the ups and downs of its myriad involvements in the wider consumer electronics industry. Even within its game division, Sony hasn’t had the steady streak of success that Nintendo has enjoyed over the past few years, during which Nintendo has announced record-breaking profits for the company multiple times.

That might make it seem like Japanese parents’/grandparents’ primary concern is for their kids/grandkids to get a job that’ll make them rich, but the survey shows that that’s not necessarily the case. When asked “How much money do you want your child/grandchild to earn?”, the top response from the survey participants, from 29.1 percent, was “I’m not concerned about it.” The next most common responses were “over 5 million yen (US$33,700) (16.4 percent) and “over 6 million yen” (15.4 percent), enough for a comfortable, but not exactly lavish, lifestyle. More so than top earning potential, what parents/grandparents did care about was an employer providing stability and security, which was cited as a key factor from 45.4 percent of respondents, with “high salary” much further down the list at number 5.

● What is an important factor for the company my child/grandchild works at? (multiple answers allowed)
1. Stability: 46.1 percent
2. No overworking of employees or harassment: 40.5 percent
3. Extensive benefits package: 39.5 percent
4. Work that is personally satisfying: 37.6 percent
5. High salary: 34.3 percent

Notably, though, high salary was citied as important more frequently for sons/grandsons than daughter/granddaughters, 40 percent vs. 28.4 percent, reflecting Japanese societal attitudes that still expect men to be the primary breadwinners for their households. Conversely, personally satisfying work, a good benefits package, and lack of overwork and harassment were cited as important factors more often for daughter and granddaughters.

● What is an important factor for the company my child/grandchild works at? (boys/girls)
High salary: 40 percent/28.4 percent
Extensive benefits package: 34.8 percent/44 percent
No overworking of employees or harassment: 37.1 percent/43.8 percent
Work that is personally satisfying: 35.3 percent/40 percent

Still, overall the results show that while parents and grandparents want their offspring to earn enough to get by, they also realize that there’s more to finding a good job than finding one that pays well.

Source: PR Times via Maidona News via Hachima Kiko
Photos ©SoraNews24
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