Workaholic Sakurai Used To Work All The Way Until Early Morning

We all know how much a workaholic Kirby’s creator, Masahiro Sakurai is, but we never really get to know the extent of his workaholicism.

In his latest Famitsu column, that was translated by Source Gaming, Sakurai discussed about his current working hours, which starts at 10:00hrs and ends at 22:00hrs and compares it to his working hours in the past, which can go on all the way until 1 or 2 in the morning.

In the game industry, there’s a lot of overtime, all-nighters, and coming in on holidays! It’s a practice that has been occurring for a long time. That suddenly changed in recent years, though.

Actually, if you look at other companies and even myself, 10:00 p.m. is when everyone goes home. Or rather, maybe we’re getting shut out? I go to work at 10:00 a.m., so I usually spend about 10 hours working each day. In the past, it wasn’t that uncommon to work until 1 or 2 in the morning so compared to those days, I’m taking it easy.

Sakurai also said that it was not really his choice to end work at 22:00hrs either. With Japanese companies starting to limit worker’s working hours to 45 hours a week, the offices shut earlier. As a result, he has to stop work earlier as well.

You can read about Sakurai’s opinion on long working hours and compliance laws in his translated column here.