Social

Capcom is committed to serving as a responsible and trusted member of society. In addition to continuing to promote employee diversity as and training, we utilize our popular game characters to contribute to community revitalization and crime prevention.

Providing a Pleasant Workplace

Promoting work-life balance

Creating entertainment culture requires that creators themselves make time for play.

At Capcom, we have established Paid Leave Promotion Days and encourage employees to take extended leave to refresh and look for new sources of inspiration during the year-end/New Year’s holidays as well as during the series of holidays in May. Additionally, we have built a four-story bicycle parking facility near our development studios and encourage our employees to live within a five-kilometer radius to shorten commuting times. This saves time and living costs while giving creators the free time necessary to cultivate their creative powers and imaginations, which is essential for creative work. Moreover, we opened Capcom Juku as an on-site daycare facility in April 2017 to provide a stable workplace environment for creators. As it is located close to work, it provides peace of mind for employees who are married or have children and has been well-received by those who have utilized it.

Supporting employees’ health management

The employee cafeteria was renovated in 2015 when the new development studio was completed. Healthy meals are served for breakfast, lunch, and supper. There is also a massage room staffed by nationally-certified massage therapists at both the Tokyo and Osaka locations to support our employees in managing their health.

Fulfilling employee potential in a cutting-edge environment

The biggest thing when it comes to motivating developers working in a creative field such as games is access to an environment that allows them to make their visions a reality. Capcom maintains a cutting-edge development environment that includes 3D scanners, a motion capture studio, a dynamic sound mixing stage, and a Foley stage. In this way, we support our creators in fulfilling their vision.

Capcom Juku

Providing an environment for vibrant childcare combining day care and education

Given the desire to quickly improve the issue of long day care waiting lists accompanying a lack of preschools, Capcom’s top management set its sights on the future, desiring to provide an environment in which employees can raise their children with peace of mind while remaining employed over the long term. We operate Capcom Juku aiming to add individual education and growth to standard day care for children.

Capcom Juku goes beyond caring for infants and preschool children and accepts a wide range of youth, including after-school kindergarten and elementary school students. This helps employees avoid the stress of not being able to find open facilities for their children. Furthermore, by offering educational support in the form of a place for learning English, eurhythmics, math, science, and other subjects, Capcom Juku joins its efforts with employees and fosters the growth of children. Currently, as of March 31, 2022, the school takes care of 23 children a month and accepts as many as 15 temporary pupils a month.

In the future, we will create a learning atmosphere at Capcom Juku that stimulates and broadens children’s curiosity, while also striving for an environment where parents can work with peace of mind so that both they and their families can lead fulfilling lives.

Promotion of Diversity

Initiatives aimed at promoting the improvement of the work environment for women and proactively hiring foreign nationals

Capcom is currently engaged in initiatives aimed at improving the work environment for women and proactively hiring foreign nationals.

Improving the Work Environment for Women

(1) Paid Leave and Shortened Working Hours

In terms of providing an environment that facilitates women, we introduced systems enabling women to take a leave of absence before and after giving birth, childcare leave and shortened working hours, and promote their use throughout the Company. Utilization of the childcare leave system in fiscal 2021 is outlined below.

Childcare leave utilization and rates of returning to work

FY2021 FY2020
Employees utilizing childcare leave 41 people (including 20 men)
*Utilization among women:100%
34 people (including 17 men)
*Utilization among women:100%
% Returned to work
*Excludes those still on leave
97.8% (34 people) 96.9% (31 people)

Number of Female Managers and Ratio of Female Employees (Capcom Co., Ltd.)

Despite it being said that Japan’s gaming industry is generally dominated by men, women account for roughly 21% of Capcom’s workforce, and 35 (12.5%) of Capcom’s managers are women.

(2) General Employer Action Plan

In accordance with the execution of the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children and the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, in 2019 we formulated the General Employer Action Plan, which seeks to achieve two things: (1) developing a personnel system that contributes to diversity in work styles, and (2) having women comprise at least 15% of managers by the end of fiscal 2024. In recognition of Capcom’s efforts toward improving the workplace environment for women, since 2014 we have earned the “Kurumin” mark, the symbol of a “company supporting childcare,” from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Proactively hiring non-Japanese

In terms of the proactive employment of foreign nationals, Capcom is making efforts to strengthen overseas expansion capabilities including creating an English hiring website. We currently employ 188 foreign nationals (representing 6.2% of our employees). Going forward, we will create a system for improving motivation and work on promoting diversity, including support for career advancement and the promotion of foreign nationals to management positions.

Number and Ratio of Foreign Employees (Capcom Co., Ltd.)

Capcom Voices

Anoop Manalvathukkal Technical Artist, Advanced Game Development Section, Game Development Department 1

Anoop Manalvathukkal

Technical Artist
Advanced Game Development Section,
Game Development Department 1

As a technical artist, I create things such as character “rigs”—the skeletal structures that allow them to move—and other tools that help bring the characters in our games to life. One project I’m especially proud of is a tool my team conceptualized and built to help animators more efficiently manipulate character models. We were able to present the finished product to the development team in earnest for use on Resident Evil Village. It was truly satisfying to both receive a positive reaction from our fellow developers and to see my work make a difference.

Working abroad is challenging personally and professionally, however my team has been very supportive, helping me to build relationships while I work to develop myself as a professional and take on new responsibilities. I look forward to continuing to help deliver the absolute best experiences possible for the players—we have a lot in store that I’m sure will excite you.

Petr Zapotocky Rigging Technical Director Advanced Game Development Section, Game Development Department 1

Petr Zapotocky

Rigging Technical Director
Advanced Game Development Section,
Game Development Department 1

As a Lead, I strive to foster a team environment where others can grow, making sure the right person is assigned the right task and working to ensure my team members’ wellbeing and satisfaction. At the same time, I’m also deeply committed to providing the very best quality on the creative side.

The work of any technical artist is best shown when people don’t notice it, because they’re completely immersed in the visuals. But producing the muscle and clothing of a character is a battle that takes place on a scale of milliseconds. Cloth simulation in particular is difficult and was of special focus for us on Resident Evil Village, where we much improved on our cloth simulation system, with great results.

It’s our mission to produce ever greater realism for our fans, and I hope we can continue to do so in our upcoming titles.

Miwa Hara Senior Manager of Game Development Section 4

Miwa Hara

Senior Manager of Game Development Section 4
Game Development Department 1

When your work is development, and you’re creating something from nothing, you have to have an open team. While there are some advantages to online meetings, which became prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, they tend to make it more difficult to get a temperature reading on the team and gauge reactions. We take care to carefully observe whether each person understands what’s going on and voices their opinions, so when it comes to matters that involve the core elements of the game, we go with face-to-face meetings where we avoid close contact.

It’s not easy to create a new game. You have to keep experimenting, and it’s like attempting to climb a mountain you don’t know can be climbed. Still, I have a solid sense now that everything I’ve gone through in the past has become a source of encouragement to help me take on these challenges. For that reason, I believe it’s my role as project manager to establish an environment in which every member of the team can express their thoughts and ideas without hesitation and to make sure that they can flourish.

Thomas Veraart, Data Analysis Team, Data Analysis Section, Marketing Strategy Department

Thomas Veraart

Data Analysis Team
Data Analysis Section
Marketing Strategy Department

Video games were my introduction to Japan, and as a longtime Capcom fan joining up felt only natural. Living and working abroad can be daunting but Capcom’s facilities have made some aspects easier, as I’ve been able to take advantage of onsite daycare at Capcom Juku, which my daughter attends daily.

I’ve had a wide range of experiences since joining, working on everything from our push into digital sales to business development. I’m especially proud of the deals I worked on with first-party platform holders and building our relationships with PC hardware partners. More recently, I’ve even had the opportunity to be producer—though now I’m also involved in market data analysis and planning, which is sure to present new challenges and victories.

Looking ahead, I hope that by bringing my perspective I can contribute to building an even more agile, global-facing company because this is the kind of place where driven people with ideas can make a difference. If you’re interested in joining me, I’d love to see you here.

Yuko Yasuda, Senior Manager of Trademark & Copyright Section, Intellectual Property Department

Yuko Yasuda

Senior Manager of Trademark & Copyright Section
Intellectual Property Department

The Trademark & Copyright Section is engaged in intellectual property management operations, including trademark research and patent applications for product names and use of copyrights inside games, to support global development of game content.

In recent years, it has become popular to stream game play on video sharing sites, which led us to create video guidelines for people as one way to support the activities of game fans.

In addition to the specific tasks you’re in charge of, a manager has to do many things, from budget management to improving the efficiency of operations. On the other hand, in recent years, we have also incorporated remote work, which has provided me with more latitude in my daily life, so I can have supper with my family and spend more time with my children. This has allowed me to balance childcare and work.

There is currently a male employee in the Intellectual Property Department taking paternity leave, which really crystalized for me the idea that our working environment is conducive to raising children. I hope to continue growing together with Capcom.

Related Article