Nintendo reports extremely low turnover, 14.4-year average tenure in Japan

Nintendo’s Japan operations recorded an exceptionally low turnover rate of about 1.9% alongside an average employee tenure of 14.4 years, figures published in the company’s regional employee statistics and highlighted in coverage tying the dataset to the April 2024–March 2025 period. The contrast is stark with a 2020 national benchmark cited by commentators showing a 31.2% turnover for university graduates, underscoring how unusual Nintendo’s retention profile appears in Japan.

Regional comparisons in the dataset show higher turnover outside Japan: Nintendo of America around 5.7% (rounded to “about 5%” in some outlets), Nintendo of Europe at 6.0%, and Nintendo Australia at 16.7%. Average years of service likewise vary by region with North America averaging 10 years, Europe 11.1 years, and Australia 8.5 years, while outlets describing the breakdown noted that most regions fall in an 8.5-to-11-year range and that Japan is a clear outlier at 14.4 years.

Nintendo’s overall headcount and financials provide context for the retention numbers. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 the company reported a global full-time staff of 5,630, up from 5,264 the previous year, an increase of 366 full‑time employees, and gross profit of $4.9 billion, which works out to roughly $870,337 in gross profit per employee. Industry comparisons published alongside the data showed Sony’s Game & Network Services division at about 12,100 employees and $2.8 billion operating income, or roughly $231,404 per employee.

Coverage has also emphasized a separate new-hire retention metric. One article defined the low turnover figure under discussion as “the average percentage of employees who quit a company within 3 years of entering it” and reported a Business Journal figure, quoted by Automaton, that “Nintendo manages to retain almost all of their new employees, with an average of 1 out of 100 new hires quitting the company.” That new-hire measure is distinct from the annual regional turnover percentages reported for Japan, America, Europe and Australia.

Media outlets reproducing Nintendo’s tables noted the dataset goes beyond simple headcount and tenure. GoNintendo pointed to categories including disability status and childcare leave in the full breakdown and characterized the company’s numbers as “extremely low turnover rate,” adding editorially, “Based on these numbers, it seems that people who work for Nintendo tend to stick around for a pretty long time, so they must be treating their staff pretty well!” Aggregators later framed the profile as “an extremely high employee‑retention profile at Nintendo and very long average tenure in management ranks.”

Taken together, the published figures and secondary reporting paint a company with unusually long tenures in Japan and generally low turnover globally, at a time when Nintendo’s per-employee gross profitability sits far above some industry peers. Verification of metric definitions and the precise timeframes for each percentage would pin down whether these patterns reflect consistent multi-year trends or a concentrated snapshot for fiscal 2024–25, but as reported the numbers mark Nintendo as an outlier on retention and tenure.