A Day in the Life of a Japanese Game Programmer

08:15 — Young Masa, 23, wakes up in Tokyo for another day at one of Japan’s major game companies. He lives alone in a compact Japanese apartment — efficient use of space, which usually means small. Like many people in Japan, he skips a morning shower to save time and prefers bathing at night, when an ofuro doubles as a way to clean up and unwind. He washes his face, brushes his teeth, changes out of his pajamas, and is dressed for work in about ten minutes.

09:10 — He is already heading to the train station; it is raining and Masa has an umbrella. He reaches the office around 09:50. Masa works for Bandai Namco Studios, the development side of the Bandai Namco group — known for franchises such as Tekken and Pac-Man, among many other titles. (Mario Kart remains a Nintendo series; Bandai Namco teams have supported some Nintendo projects over the years, but that is not the same as “owning” Mario Kart.) The studio has roughly a thousand people across several floors of a Tokyo building.

Contents 8

Masa starts work — most of the day is programming

On his floor, Masa clocks in, sits at his desk, turns on his computer, takes off his shoes, and slips into comfortable sandals.

Before he opens his code, he checks email and the company’s internal social network — often while eating a quick breakfast at his desk.

Near Masa’s desk there is a “video game corner” with consoles such as PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and VR headsets, plus a powerful PC for testing.

On another floor is the staff lounge. There are at least four bins for sorting waste, a hot-water pot, a microwave, a snack corner, and a fridge with ice cream and other treats. Anyone can take something under a simple honesty system: products are restocked from a cash box where people leave payment. Would that work as smoothly in every workplace culture? It works here because trust is part of the daily routine.

The office looks more like a normal corporate floor than a Silicon Valley campus. Without the character posters and a few game-related details, you might not guess games are being made in the building.

Console and game library

One floor holds a library of electronic games and classic hardware — Nintendo systems, PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, Super Nintendo/SNES, SEGA Master System, SEGA Saturn, Family Computer, and more. There are several shelves packed with cartridges, discs, and consoles.

Lunchtime

12:00 — Masa goes out for lunch with a colleague who is his 同期・どうき — someone who joined the company in the same hiring wave. Japanese firms often hire large groups of new graduates once a year, so 同期 relationships matter.

同期 (dōki): someone who started working or studying at the same time as you. For example, classmates from different universities who enter the same company together.

The building has a cafeteria, and food trucks rotate out front. The line can be long; rain and cold make it less fun. Masa does not always use the trucks — sometimes he leaves the area for lunch or grabs something at a nearby convenience store.

Question: Is this the only Bandai Namco office in Japan?

Colleague’s answer: The group includes many companies, so if you count the whole Bandai Namco family, locations are spread across the country.

For lunch Masa ordered a bowl of roasted duck. Before eating, he and his colleague put their hands together and say いただきます — “let’s eat,” with gratitude for the meal.

After eating, before returning to work, they stop at an arcade machine featuring their beloved Pac-Man — a huge screen and comfortable controls. Employees can play the available cabinets for free.

Code Vein

13:00 — Masa is back at his desk coding. Elsewhere in the building, different teams work on different titles. A short conversation with another team:

— Excuse me, what is your role here?
— I’m the director and development producer on Code Vein, which was recently released.
— What is Code Vein?
— It’s an action RPG with exploration and dramatic scenes, built around animated characters in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic setting.
— Can you show me?
— After the console is set up and the game is loaded, yes.
— The main characters are Revenants — undead beings with vampiric traits — and you can customize your own Revenant in depth.
— The graphics look strong… How long did development take?
— From planning, roughly five years. At one point about 200 people were working on it.

Even after launch, development does not simply stop: teams keep shipping updates and downloadable content based on player feedback.

Another group is meeting nearby — time to say hello.

Tekken 7

— Hello, may I ask what you are working on?
— We’re developing Tekken 7; I’m the director on this project.
— What are you doing right now?
— Checking downloadable content for Season Pass 3.
— Can I take a peek?
— It’s a secret! (laughs)

Nearby, arcade machines running Tekken 7 are used to test characters and feel — an essential part of fighting-game work.

Meetings and a short nap

14:00 — Masa is away from his desk for a daily “scrum” of about thirty minutes. The team reviews yesterday’s plan, today’s tasks, and risks. Tasks are tracked in software and projected on a screen.

Scrum is an agile way to plan and manage software work. Work is split into short cycles called sprints — time boxes in which a defined set of tasks should be finished.

14:30 — Before coding again, Masa — already a little tired — rests briefly in the break area, then uses the free drink machine (tea, soda, juice).

17:00 — A second meeting reviews the sprint every two weeks. Meeting rooms can be booked from a digital panel, which keeps the logistics simple.

18:00 — He wraps remaining tasks, catches emails he missed during meetings, and writes a short summary of the day.

Masa plans to meet friends, so he will leave a bit earlier than on heavy days. He is hungry and already thinking about dinner.

Almost done for the day — then dinner with friends

19:07 — Masa leaves after a little more than eight hours. He says overtime still appears when big projects demand it. In Japan, unpaid or expected overtime has long been a sensitive topic in many industries, including games — see also how zangyo (overtime) works in Japanese workplaces.

He meets friends for dinner. おつかれさまです greets colleagues after work — roughly “thanks for your hard work.”

Today is payday and a Friday, so the group can relax a little more.

In many izakaya settings, people order drinks freely while sharing dishes, then split the bill evenly regardless of who drank more. Smoking indoors used to be common in 居酒屋・いざかや bars, though rules have tightened in many cities over the years.

After work: Gunpla, YouTube, and games

21:30 — Masa says goodbye and takes the subway home. Even after the office, a lot of free time still happens in front of a screen — games, videos, and hobbies that stay close to the industry he works in.

— Do you watch YouTube?
— Yes. Lately I’ve been watching a GUNDAM・ガンダム channel from SUNRISE. I can spend a whole day on GUNDAM. You can see the boxes and model kits around the apartment.

— What about the rest of the night?
— I’m building a GUNDAM model until bed. Several kits are still unopened; tonight is MS-06R-2 Johnny Ridden’s Zaku II.

A few quiet hours of plastic panels and stickers, then sleep around midnight — one ordinary, very Japanese day for a game programmer in Tokyo.