Does race matter?

[Reptile]

im 14 and im wondering if companies like capcom and square enix only hire peole of there own race because ive notice that there are no american artist in any of their game so does where you are from count in trying to get a job???please answer because i really want to know!!!

[Elwell]

Japanese companies hire primarily Japanese people, and Japan is a far more racially homogeneous country than the US or even most of Europe.
In the US, not hiring someone solely because of race or ethnic background is illegal (although often difficult to prove).
When working as a freelancer, these days there is rarely any face-to-face or even phone contact, so it should be a non-issue. Of course, it should always be a non-issue.

[Stark]

I think you mean nationality and not race. But like Master Elwell has stated, it is a non issue and it's kind of a tradition in Japan (I suppose) to hire from within the nationality/race/country rather than import someone else. Besides, they have great artists there, why would be need to bring in Americans or Europeans?

[Ian Mack]

I agree. Nationality.

Another reason for them to be hiring mainly japanese people is the sense of culture. It's that much easier to create a strong company culture when everyone is already similar in many ways.

Imagine working in an animation studio where the guy next to you speaks Korean, and the guy on the otherside speaks japanese! Communication is a factor in who they hire as well.

[Reptile]

But it seems like theres no big companies in the US
What are some companies here???
And to ian wouldnt you just learn to speak japanese??

[Renegade89]

Nationality or race,dont matter much, plenty of artists are located outside of their home countries or freelance for clients outside of their region.

If you have a company located in japan were you have plenty of qualified proffesionals to hire within the same area and that speak your same languaje, then the majority of your staff will be japanese, is a nobrainer :shrug:

What you should think about is becoming qualified, getting experience and make a solid portfolio before worrying about the employment. There are pleeenty big, small and middle companies and studios around the world to work with, not just Capcom and square enix.

[Seedling]

But it seems like theres no big companies in the US
What are some companies here???


Here Reptile, you can use this to see where in the world game companies are located: http://www.gamedevmap.com/

[•Lindsay•]

So xenophobia is accepted behavior now? I must have missed something.

[Elwell]

So xenophobia is accepted behavior now? I must have missed something.
saywhatnow?

[•Lindsay•]

Maybe I'm misinterpreting the posts but it seems like some people are saying there isn't anything wrong with avoiding hiring foreigners.

[Seedling]

Yup, you're misinterpreting.

[mirskov]

wow Seedling thanks for that link i was going to start a thread on the east coast companies - that helps! ;)

[•Lindsay•]

Yup, you're misinterpreting.Ok, pretend my old post is deleted.

[CaptainInsano]

I work at a medium sized video game studio in Los Angeles.

Out of the 100 people in our studio, we only have one African American. We have a dozen or so Mexicans, and some of them hold very high senior/Lead positions. Some of the most talented people at our company are of South American/Latin American decent. We have around a dozen asians here, too (Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Thai). The other 80 people here are all white, and of course they have all the highest positions in the company as well.

However, statistically Los Angeles is about 80% caucasian, and most of the people getting in the game industry are caucasian, so the ethnic ratio seems about right. Overall, your talent, experience, and ability to work with others will matter the most.

Living in Japan, it makes sense they would show preference for a fellow Japanese than a foreigner for jobs up there. They are not as open as Americans when it comes to outsiders living in their country (despite how f'ed up our current laws are).

[Qitsune]

Nothing better than to go at the source http://www.square-enix.com/jp/recruit/
The site is entirely in japanese, they have postings in french or english, these are jobs as testers of the translated games.
I have read job postings for Square in the past and they require that you 1-be super hot in your job 2-speak and write japanese like a native.

It makes sense, would you go out of your way to hire someone who can't read your documents and can't speak your language? I wouldn't call that xenophobia, more like common sense. My boss hired a programmer who spoke no english and nearly no french in the past, only mandarin, that was quite the pain in the butt even tho the guy was nice and probably competant, it's hard to say.

[arttorney]

There could be issues related to immigration status that affect this, at least in the case where the prospective employee intends to live in the country where the employer is domiciled. It's that way in the U.S.

Thus, the employer may have an easier time keeping records that satisfy the government if they stick to people who can show nice obvious papers such as local birth certificates.

[Reptile]

could someone tell me of an artist that works far a big company in japan thats also from the us??

[aesir]

reptile, Im sure there is one or two, but they are fluent in japanese and have probably lived in japan a while.

Big japanese companies dont hire americans when they dont have to. They are xenophobic.

[Reptile]

what if i go live in japan and learn japanese??

[Stark]

What is this fascination with asiatic companies and who they hire? I would focus on my art (I don't want to hear anything about me regarding this) than worry about a company who is not looking at hiring right this moment. It just seems almost pointless.

[Renegade89]

what if i go live in japan and learn japanese??

As far as i know the japanese industry has very high standards of quality, not only that but a huge amount of qualified professionals that compete in all the fields, is not an easy ground. And going to live in a different country with a complete different languaje and culture is not as easy as it sounds.

Again, main thing to worry about is preparation and becoming qualified, dont think too much on this stuff, if you are unqualified it makes no difference where you live or the size of the industry, this goes with any career. Your only 14, focus on improving your skills and worry about the rest later

[Reptile]

Art is the main thing im focusing on, it just something i wanted to know
its not likei post on here everyday about it

[Whyatt Thrash]

My personal experiences with this wherever I've been... Any company with higher end jobs tend prefer hiring native workforce. Lower-end jobs like waiting tables or handing out newspapers, who cares, but anything that requires a longer education, they go native.

There are several valid practical reasons for this.

- You speak the language natively. Which makes it easier to communicate with co-workers, you'll present ideas easier and provide less spelling errors etc if you work with any kind of text-processing.

- You understand the culture. Less probability of strain with co-workers due to social codes, and you'll probably communicate ideas better with the native demographic etc etc.

- You won't "move back to your country" at some point, thus losing a valued employee.

Then there are a whole bunch of advantages in employing a foreigner too, hiring someone who's able to think differently then everybody else enrichens a lot more than it complicates things, but... This is what I guess many employers are thinking. That, and it's scary to employ someone with a strange name, face, and who thinks and acts differently than everyone else. So, yeah, xenophobia too. Definetily. You should expect the same wherever you do travel in this wide world. In my experience at least...

The main exception to the rule are companies that work internationally, where it might be a practical advantage to have one guy from Sudan, another from Sweden, another from Korea cause they do business with all countries on a daily basis.

[Hyaloclastics]

could someone tell me of an artist that works far a big company in japan thats also from the us??

http://www.christianlorenzscheurer.com/htmlpages/htmlmenue/homepage.html
http://japanmanship.blogspot.com/
There are others too.
If you have an exceptional portfolio and have sufficient knowledge of the language yes it is possible...

[Whyatt Thrash]

There could be issues related to immigration status that affect this, at least in the case where the prospective employee intends to live in the country where the employer is domiciled. It's that way in the U.S.

Thus, the employer may have an easier time keeping records that satisfy the government if they stick to people who can show nice obvious papers such as local birth certificates.

Also, some countries have laws that require companies to hire native workforce over foreigners without work permits, unless the countries of the employer and employee have a special "worker exchange" treaty. That is to say; in order for you to be able to get a work permit for a specific job, that company first has to advertise the job post and interview native workers. And if they're unable to find a native worker that can fill the position, only then can they apply for a work permit for a foreign worker. This hinders the "import" of foreign work force in some countries.

The governments of the world don't want people to move around, that's why these things are so frigging hard.

[Call0ps]

im sorry, im half japanese, and i used to lived at japan and i know what u all mean, about the racial issues etc...! but i think they don't hire much foreigners also( i think this is the correct use ) because of the language barrier, if some artist have the enough talent and speak fluently the language is probably hired, and u guys all know, but English at japan aint that good ( any good at ALL! xD ), its not skin color problem, but historical issues still remains in their mentality, ( lesser with the time ) theres still wounds healing... ok i dont want to vague to much about it... anyway my opinion ^^
Renegade89 is completely right focus on your skill for now =D

[hankventure]

could someone tell me of an artist that works far a big company in japan thats also from the us??

Though this isn't a game company (it's an animation studio), at Studio 4°C the guy that directed Tekkon Kinkreet is an american. He used to live in the states, but moved to Japan and works there now. I think the main issue in working in other countries is trying to get visas.

[subversive-imaginati]

Don't go strictly by names, given the number of people who've immigrated to various countries and married there, a Japanese name doesn't mean they're necessarily born in Japan or are ethnically Japanese. Plenty of people change their names, marry into a name or otherwise end up with a name that doesn't match their apparent ethnicity.

While yes, a lot of the Japanese games companies have Japanese workers due to communication ease and a large job market of Japanese workers. They have also have/had outsourced studios. At one point Square had a studio outside of Japan but they shut it down a few years ago. I don't know if they have any others.

[Elwell]

At one point Square had a studio outside of Japan but they shut it down a few years ago. I don't know if they have any others.Square's film division, which produced Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, was based in Hawaii (presumably because it was convenient to both headquarters in Japan and Hollywood?). It was closed down after the movie bombed.

[Hyver]

a race matters most to those who win it

(post count +1)

[serhc]

Square's film division, which produced Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, was based in Hawaii (presumably because it was convenient to both headquarters in Japan and Hollywood?). It was closed down after the movie bombed.

Ouch, the punnery :O

[Olof]

Wasn't there an american guy that made the 3d for backgrounds in Final Fantasy IX? I'm fairly sure I've seen an interview with the guy.

I don't think it's impossible to get into the japanese video game industry, but count on many years of studying the language. Which isn't impossible.
Try taking one or two years where you live, then move there for further studies. I could give you some info on schools in japan, but I'm guessing it's abit to early for that.

.peace

[Sepulverture]

In regards to your post asking what if you spoke Japanese and lived there for a while reptile, let me share some of my own experiences with you: When I lived in Japan I was married to a Japanese woman, I could speak Japanese fairly well, and had very little trouble communicating as long as it wasn't deep abstract ideas we (the Japanese person and I) were talking about and the only reason I was able to obtain my first job as a karaoke bar tender there was because my ex-wife knew the bar owner. I got payed somewhere on the order of 1000 yen per hour (roughly 10 dollars per hour, give or take) and it almost took the hand of God himself to get me into such a low position on the Japanese work force ladder. After much kicking, screaming, hunting, and aggressive networking I became an elementary school teacher. In the end it was 1/3 determination, 1/3 luck, and 1/3 because of the people I knew who helped leverage me into the position.

Moral of the story: Gaijin finding work in japan outside of teaching english or working in a foreign-owned company is tough shit.

If you plan on working for a Japanese game company (I can't imagine why you would want to churn out the same super-crap rpg's over and over again, as it seems is all that comes out of most Japanese game dev companies) then you'd better get damn fluent at speaking the language, learn how to read it better than they can and learn your trade better than any other person interviewing for the job.

[enrigo]

Moral of the story: Gaijin finding work in japan outside of teaching english or working in a foreign-owned company is tough shit.


That sounds scary considering how many people dream of working in Japan...
:anime:

[Elwell]

That sounds scary considering how many people dream of working in Japan...
:anime:
People dream of being firemen and astronauts when they're young, too, before the cold hand of reality bitchslaps 99% of them.

[enrigo]

Maybe most of the fireman and astronaut wanna-be drop their dreams before putting in any effort, and also before being a senior high student. :P

[Costau D]

What about Korea?

[Seedling]

Maybe most of the fireman and astronaut wanna-be drop their dreams before putting in any effort, and also before being a senior high student. :P

The wanna-be astronaut that I knew followed her dreams as far as a degree from M.I.T. That's nothing to be ashamed of. She's going to have some serious job options when she finished getting her graduate education. Dreams are great motivation, even when they lead where you don't expect.

[Renegade89]

My personal experience has nothing to do with Japan or the game industry, sorry for the tl;dr comment ;).

I am an engeneer student, in my 5th trimester, my university is know as the most demanding in my country, at least in science careers, it has the biggest drop rates and for a 5 year career the average student takes 6 and a half years to finish. I am already behind the 5 years goal.

The last trimester is when the newbies came in, in the very first week me and a bud were sitting close to a group of them that were discussing employment in the Nasa and the oportunities in the MIT, which is ridiculous considering that 70 % of the newbies fail the first math trimester, they havent even presented their first exam and they were blabering about things that are very far away.I know for a fact that one of that group failed math.

Those are things that are not impossible, most of the proffesors in the uni are retired engeneers, math and physics experts that have work all over the world, some of them have in fact been in the MIT, doing investigations or getting a title, i think one of them even been in the nasa but im not sure about that, he is a very recognized mathematician thought.

My godfather has 2 degrees and 20 years of experience, in all of those years he has spoken perfect english, he works and lives in Calgary, in a big beautiful house with his family. He always said the exact same thing: Preparation is what bring opportunities, if your want to achieve a high goal first thing to do is keep you feet on the ground and be aware of what it takes to get there.

I say if your dream is working for a japanese game developer, go for it,having dreams is a good thing, but keep in mind all of what it takes to do so, preparation is the key, and as Seedling said, if you prepare yourself you can be succesful, even when it doesnt lead you exactly where you expected.