Persona developer Atlus raising average annual salary by 15 percent

Persona and Shin Megami Tensei developer Atlus will raise the base salary of new graduates by 300,000 yen ($1,977) and the average annual salary of all employees by 15 percent in April 2024 to become more competitive on the global stage.

A press release (run through Google translate) notes the company wants to ensure it can attract and retain talent as it "promotes global expansion" by "creating an environment where employees can perform to the best of their ability through stable income."

"As a result of this revision, the starting salary for new graduates will increase from 257,000 yen to 300,000 yen, and the average annual salary for current employees will increase by 15 percent. Additionally, due to strong overseas business development, starting in fiscal 2021, we will be paying performance bonuses funded by worldwide profits," reads the release.

Atlus said its projects have garnered "worldwide recognition" in recent years and that it must make a "major revision" to its compensation structure in order to strengthen its sales performance and ability to develop and support franchises.

The Japanese publisher had already increased its annual average salary by 5 percent in April 2023, but now feels the time is right to slap another 15 percent raise on top.

Although wages in Japan are currently rising, that hasn't always been the case. As reported by Reuters earlier this year, the current wave of pay increases is the largest in over two decades, with worker compensation in Japan having stagnated on the whole since the 1990s.

The result is a number of Japanese game companies–including Monolith Soft, Capcom, Koei Tecmo, and Bandai Namco–have chosen to lift the base salary of workers in the region over the past couple of years.