Nintendo Kyoto HQ
Image: Nintendo

According to Nintendo's annual report published earlier this week, only 4.2% of company managers in Japan are women. This is a number that has remained unchanged since 2021, when the company formed its 'Nintendo Women and Allies' initiative, pledging to "promote women’s careers" (thanks, Axios).

On top of this small percentage of female managers at Nintendo Japan, the 2023 annual report was also the first to offer a complete pay breakdown, highlighting a gender pay gap between its employees.

The report notes that women at Nintendo make on average 72% of what men are paid, though the company states that this is primarily due to differences in length of service at the company:

The pay gap between male and female regular employees is mainly due to differences in the length of service and average age. There is no difference in treatment between men and women in terms of salary or evaluation systems

Reuters recently found that Japan has the largest gender pay gap of all the G7 nations, with women earning on average around 78% of what men do.

It should be noted that Nintendo's annual report is based on its Japanese offices alone and does not include a breakdown of the company as a whole (including the European or North American branches, for example). That being said, a recent Corporate Governance Report did offer a global figure, stating that 23.5% of the company's managers worldwide were women — a drop from 2021 which came in at 23.7%.

Nintendo's Corporate Social Responsibility report from 2021 laid out a number of initiatives that Nintendo had implemented to support its employees and promote diversity and inclusion. One such initiative was the Nintendo Woman and Allies Employee Research Group, which was established with the following objective:

Nintendo Women and Allies supports female employees by offering a variety of empowering opportunities that help promote women’s careers. These include presentations from women in management positions, cross-departmental communication to promote leadership, presentation skill development and networking.

Despite this, 2023's employee figures demonstrate that the company still has some way to go as far as diversity in management is concerned.

[source nintendo.co.jp, via axios.com]