Japanese Animators Misery: Underpaid And Overworked

The dark side of Japan’s anime industry: Animators

Being an animator in Japan, was my dream when I’ve become a fan of Japanese animation. I remember I said to my parent, that I want to learn how to draw, I dream to become an artist and travel to Japan so I can work in Toei Animation Studio, my dad said to me you have no clue about how Japanese are hardworking guys and you’re the laziest, spoiled child we have, you have no guts. Mom was cool she’s supportive, she said: do what you want. So I learned how to draw, and when I was in university I did had some Japanese friends, who told me there is a dark side in their country, which is related to their work life’s style and manners. Animators as part of the Japanese community are hardworking as well as the others inside Japan, and as always there is a ‘but’, Animators in japan are overworked and underpaid, they are mistreated in their domain.

In this article I am writing, you may already know it’s a stereotype topic published under different titles on different websites, but it’s not like the others, it will have a special touch, so no more talk, let’s begin.

How much do Animators earn?

Being a person who goes deep into the anime industry, cares about what’s happening, and a newbie Animator, I know how the animation studios inside japan work. I believe that the talented hands behind your preferred show are the animators who are honestly underpaid and overworked.

According to The Association of Japanese Animations in The Anime Industry Report, Anime brings in more than $21 billion in 2019, and in a study/questionnaire conducted for Animators in Japan, the average animators’ workday is about 12 hours, 50% of them feel that the wages are insufficient for the work they do and 90% think their payments is insufficient at all.

Furthermore, 26.8% of these animators earn less than 1 million yen (approximately $9,628) annually, 19.6% earn between 1 and 2 million yen (approximately $19000) annually, and 18.6% earn between 2 and 3 million yen (approximately $28,800) annually. This means that 65% of animators earn less than 3 million yen annually.

What makes things worst, the majority of these animators live in Tokyo. One of the most expensive cities in the world. About 50% of the participants work without contracts (Freelance), and about 40% of them do not have health insurance. This is without mentioning other working conditions.

The amount varies depending on the type of animator job’s, for example, storyboard animators are paid for each frame they draw, the average they get for a frame is 187 yen ($ 1.60). 73.7% of storyboard animators earn less than 1 million yen annually, and the most highly paid will receive 80% of what other types of illustrators get.

Animators working conditions

To be straight here, Animator is seen as the lowest in society, for sure many fans think being an animator is good, but as I declared before the reality is something else, You should know that animators may work up to 20 hours per day, they sleep in their offices, they even get fewer earnings than those who works at McDonald’s. More, artists and animators don’t get royalties or bonuses for their voluntary work. You need to know that the animator could be expelled from his apartment due to his inability to pay the rent.

However, the animator is qualified to rank and be a graphic supervisor, character designer, or director, keep in mind that many of the greatest directors were originally animators such as Hideaki Anno (director of Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Hayao Miyazaki (The co-founder of Studio Ghibli). Of course, if you ranked well in your career, then your situation will improve, for example, if you become a director, you will earn a lot of money, but among many animators, few of them reach this stage.

Daily life of Animators

If you consider being an animator in Japan, you need to know that if you want to go to your house, it will not be until the end of the week, you will sleep and bathe in the studio, your payment is tiny as your desktop, and you will not get adequate food, you will redraw a difficult scene only because no one likes the first drawing you did, you have no guarantee that you will get another job after this.

Originally published at https://allanimangas.blogspot.com on January 16, 2021.