• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header left navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Banners
    • Spam Liker Hall of Shame
    • Podcast
  • Reviews
  • Guides
    • List of Suggested Manga
  • Kireina Yuri
  • Subscribe
    • RSS Feed
    • Mastodon
    • Bluesky (Bridged, Blog Feed Only)
    • Misskey
    • Feedburner
    • Anime Blog Tracker
    • Comments Feed
    • Add to Feedly
    • WordPress Reader

Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Anime blog that focuses on Yuri and School Girl Slice of Life Anime and Editorials

  • Tab 1
  • Tab 3
  • Tab 3
  • Home
  • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Banners
    • Spam Liker Hall of Shame
    • Podcast
  • Reviews
  • Guides
    • List of Suggested Manga
  • Kireina Yuri
  • Subscribe
    • RSS Feed
    • Mastodon
    • Bluesky (Bridged, Blog Feed Only)
    • Misskey
    • Feedburner
    • Anime Blog Tracker
    • Comments Feed
    • Add to Feedly
    • WordPress Reader

comedy

moe

drama

music

opinion

final impressions

yuri

idol

action

kyoani

All Work and No Pay – Being a Japanese Animator is Tough

February 3, 2015 by Chikorita157 11 Comments

sample-88f077d7b90cab2fead15c9e31270344

Just little over five years ago, I have done some research on how the Anime industry works and of course, I have only covered the surface. Shirobako, which started airing back in October of last year. Not only it reveals how anime is produced, but also blew open some of the internal issues in the industry, especially in regards to the animation studios.

With that, I will be focusing on animator’s wages, working conditions and its implications on the industry as a whole. Also, what steps should the industry take to deal with these issues?

Most people probably came across various articles stating that animators in general are overworked and pay very little. Just several months ago, PA Works gave an estimate of the salaries of occupations dealing with the animation industry. This chart gives a new perspective of how a typical person involved in an anime production earns each year. To take it into perspective, I want to see how they compare to other occupations in Japan. By taking the data from the Statistics Bureau in Japan, which contains monthly data from various industries, I basically totaled up the monthly data from 2013 to get the total salary. With that, I came up with this chart.

salarychart
Comparison of salaries between the animation industry vs others.

While I had to exclude the famous voice actress from the chart since it severely skews the chart, this gives a new perspective of how animation industry’s salaries compares to other industries. As expected, animators in general take home less money (1,100,000 yen a year) compared to people who work in restaurants at 1,860,000 yen a year. Furthermore, only four occupations (episode director, chief animation director, director and executive producer) related to the animation industry excluding voice actors make well above 3 million yen a year.

So, what does this all mean? Compared to other occupations, people who are working in the animation industry, especially animators are either struggling to make end’s meet or barely making it considering the high cost of living in Japan depending on the prefecture. According to the Japan Sociology blog, living in the Osaka prefecture will cost 50,000 yen per month on average for housing. Other expenses include food (about 10,000 yen a week), electricity and gas (5000 yen), and insurance (5000 yen a month). In general, it will cost about 100,000 yen a month in total to live at a bare minimum.

With animator’s monthly salary (91,667 yen per month) being well under the minimum wage compared to an average salary man who works 160 hours a month at minimum wage (106,240 to 142,080 yen a month. Note that minimum wage in Japan ranges from 664 to 888 yen per hour), there is no wonder why many animators in the industry are very dissatisfied with their salaries since they can barely make end’s meet with such low pay. In fact, the amount Ema makes per year is very close to the amount that Asahi Shimbun stated from a survey of 728 animators. It is very saddening for the fact that most animators in general enjoy drawing images, but they get very little to show for their work and most have to work overtime with no pay in most cases.

Cost breakdown of one 30 minute episode.
Cost breakdown of one 30 minute episode.

So, why wages for animators are well below the amount that an average salary man receives at minimum wage? There are many factors ranging from reduced budgets due to falling viewership to poor DVD/Blu-ray sales. From an investigation made by the Media Development Research Institute, a 30-minute episode costs about 11,000,000 yen (you can see the breakdown in this article or the chart above.) In other words, a 1-cour TV show will cost around 132,000,000 yen to produce or 1,122,401.26 US dollars (1 dollar = 117.60 as of February 2, 2015). This may seem to be a lot of money, but in reality, it is not since the middleman in most cases takes a good percentage of the profits. In addition, an in-between animator makes about 220 yen per frame. Given that an average episode has 5000 frames, he/she can expect to make 110,000 yen if one can draw 500 frames. For a beginner or people with less experience, expect that amount to be even less.

Given that most studios can only pay animators very little for their work, what implications does it have on the production quality and the industry as a whole? As stated in my previous editorial on animation mistakes, animators tend to take short cuts in order to meet the deadline. I think that worker morale is also a factor because people might put in less effort due to poor treatment and working conditions.

On the other hand, low wages can also impact the worker’s physical and mental health that it can push them to suicide. There is one notable instance of this with a 28-year-old man animator who worked for A-1 Pictures committed suicide or practically karoujisatsu (過労自殺, suicide caused by overwork) after working 600 hours a month, probably with no overtime pay.

While the Japanese government blamed A-1 Pictures for causing the overwork leading to a man’s suicide, there is no doubt that there are poor working conditions at some of these animation studios. I feel that these issues will ultimately deter young people from joining the profession as they would be more inclined to get jobs that provide better pay and working environment. In the end, I think this can be potentially disastrous for the animation industry as a whole since they will have fewer talented people to replace the veterans that are retiring.

Given the poor working conditions and salary at most animation studios, what should the industry do to fix this problem? The answer is pretty tough since Japan has been facing low birth rate while the audience has been dropping for a while now. This is another reason budgets are getting cut. Top that off with outsourcing along with a management culture that encourages overwork with no pay, it makes the problem even worse. However, I do think that many things needs to be changed as the animator’s salary being well below minimum wage is already considered immoral for a first world country. To me, I think these animators need to unionize and fight for a better wage and better working conditions or the government needs to intervene and force the industry as a whole to treat their workers better. If animators and people in the animation industry are paid better, not only it will help the Japanese economy, but it will also improve the production’s quality. Otherwise, the industry will eventually collapse on itself like a house of cards since fewer people would become interested in working for the animation industry due to the poor treatment of workers and will seek jobs with better pay and benefits.

Hopefully all of this information will give everyone a new appreciation for Japanese animation given the difficulties that most animators face. So, what do you think? Do you think that there are there any solutions to improve the salary and the working conditions at these animation studios? Or do you think that the industry as a whole needs to change so that workers are treated better?

Addendum: (March 11, 2015) Just recently on AnimeSuki, someone shared an interesting article that was published on Buzzfeed that an American animator shared his experiences of becoming an animator in Japan and of course, the experiences he shared is similar to what I already covered. I suggest giving it a read if you haven’t already.

If you see this text, this site has stolen my content. If you are affected by content thieves, look this domain up on a Whois Service, look up the IP and send a DMCA takedown with the host provider. STOP STEALING CONTENT AND MAKE YOUR OWN. Also,  MATRIXAT, go fuck yourself you fucking thief!

Share this:

  • Mastodon
  • Bluesky
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print
  • Email

Related

What’s your response?
2 responses
Love
Love
2
Like
Like
0
Surprised
Surprised
0
Haha
Haha
0
Thinking
Thinking
0
Sad
Sad
0
Category: About the Japanese Animation Industry, Editorials, ShirobakoTag: analysis, anime industry, essay, opinion, topical issues

Looking to Leave Twitter or an Alternative?

We have a new Twitter-like social network based on Mastodon that caters to Anime and Japanese media fans in addition to content creators (bloggers, video creators, podcasters), who create Anime review content or anything released to Japan called Sakurajima.

Learn More
Join Now
.

This post was handcrafted by…
Chikorita157 – who has written 3,611 posts.

Author and Owner of Chikorita157’s Anime Blog and Kireina Yuri. If you want to learn more about me, see the “About chikorita157” page.

Previous Post:Weekly Anime Impressions – Winter 2015 – Week 4 – Shirobako and Dog Days Double Dash
Next Post:Kantai Collection ~KanColle~ – Episode 5 – The Unlikely Squadron

New Here? Review the Commenting Policy before adding a comment.

Additionally, linking to your blog should only be done in the Website field, not in the comment itself, unless it contibutes to the discussion. If you are using a Wordpress.com account to comment, you can change the website URL in the Account Settings

You can comment on this blog post using your Mastodon or Misskey account on the Fediverse or your account on Bluesky.

Simply copy this post’s URL and paste it on your Mastodon server’s search field. On Misskey, click More, then lookup and paste the post’s URL Once the post comes up, reply to that post to comment.

Note: Comments must be approved first and this functionality may not work on certain servers

On Bluesky, follow @ap.brid.gy first (if you haven’t already) and then follow @chikorita157.chikorita157.com.ap.brid.gy. Simply reply to the corresponding post to comment.

If you want to follow this blog with a Mastodon or Misskey account, click the follow button below.

Reader Interactions

2 Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Overlord-G :
    March 12, 2015 at 12:37 pm • Magical Level: 439

    I love this show. Started marathoning this week as I decided to focus on Nanoha mainly during weekends to avoid fatigue.

    I was excited for Shirobako, besides it promising a female group as the protagonists (though they kinda are despite Oi being the clear cut main character of the whole thing). I did not expect the show to go as deep as it has but it’s a two cour show so I should not be surprised. The stuff it has been teaching viewers about the anime industry, the factual and dramatized, have all been excellent.
    So far the episode that cracked me up most was the seiyuu audition board meeting. I can easily imagine those meetings being as long and insane as that one. I mean look at how hilarious political/governmental meetings are.
    As for the whole “the anime industry can be a cruel mistress” message, oh yeah, reading it loud and clear.

    Reply
    • chikorita157 :
      March 13, 2015 at 8:11 pm • Magical Level: 3346

      I have to admit that Shirobako is probably one of the best shows PA Works made so far. While I agree that it’s dramatized, I agree that it reveals some things about the industry we didn’t know about. Still, there have been interesting articles coming out about the industry showing how tough it is currently. There is one I linked just recently showing how bad the conditions are. Hopefully once people realize this, somehow the industry will change its ways and pay the animators better wages and give them better working conditions.

      Of course for Shizuka, it doesn’t get any better. I glanced over a recent article made on AnimeNewsNetwork and only 1 in 100 voice actors become pros… Ouch.

      Reply

9 Trackbacks

  1. Weekly Anime Impressions – Winter 2015 – Week 5 – Shirobako and Dog Days Double Dash - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  2. It's that Time Again - The Sunshine Blog Reward - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  3. Life Lessons - Relating with Shizuka's Difficulties - Should you Chase a Passion? - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  4. The Dark Side Behind the Glamor or Why Being a Voice Actor in Japan is Difficult - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  5. Cute Anime Girls, Not Trump will Make Anime Great Again - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  6. All Work and No Pay – Part II - Animator's Pay and Working Conditions Keeps Getting Worse - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  7. The Mysterious Blogger Award - Part I - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  8. What Is on My Mind - March 2021 - Anime Blogging Frustrations, and Feeling of Isolation, Fighting Anti-Asian Racism, Poor Animator Pay and More - Chikorita157's Anime Blog
  9. What is on My Mind - May 2021 - Kadokawa's Unsustainable Goal, Interest in Seiyuu Live Performances, Madoka Magica 4th Movie Announcement and More - Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Sidebar

Categories

Archives

Current Season

  • Mayonaka Punch
  • Na Nare Hana Nare
  • Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan
  • VTuber nanda ga Haishin Kiri Wasuretara Densetsu ni Natteta

Episodic Blogging Schedule

To be decided.

Anything not covered here will be covered at Kireina Yuri with short impressions.

Non-Episodic Content

  • Editorials
  • Japanese Self-Study Progress
  • Let’s Plays
  • Podcast
  • Project iM@S
  • Reviews

Follow Us

You can subscribe to this blog via WordPress Reader

Follow Chikorita157’s Anime Blog on WordPress.com

Also follow us on Mastodon for the latest blog updates and Anime/Manga/Video Games related toots

Follow @chikorita157 on Mastodon

Get a Mastodon Account

Anime Lists

AniList
MyAnimeList

Recent Posts

Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite – Episode 6 – Lilisa and The Prince of Oushin

Aru Majo ga Shinu Made – Episode 6 – The “Conceited” Witch of Lapis

Slime Taoshite 300-nen Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita – Episode 5 – Shalsha, Falfa, and Sandra Goes to School and the Return of Young Azusa

mono – Episode 4 – Winetasting and the Photography Mukbang Competition

Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi – Episode 4 – Satoko Tries to Get Konoha to Notice Her

Recent Comments

  1. 1or11 on Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite – Episode 6 – Lilisa and The Prince of OushinMay 8, 2025
  2. chikorita157 🐰:unverified: on Aru Majo ga Shinu Made – Episode 6 – The “Conceited” Witch of LapisMay 8, 2025
  3. Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite – Episode 6 – Lilisa and The Prince of Oushin – Chikorita157's Anime Blog on Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite – Episode 5 – Lilisa’s and Otoha’s First Public Debut, in a Symphonic BandMay 8, 2025
  4. Aru Majo ga Shinu Made – Episode 6 – The "Conceited" Witch of Lapis – Chikorita157's Anime Blog on Aru Majo ga Shinu Made – Episode 5 – Bringing the Unlikely Couple Together, with MagicMay 7, 2025
  5. chikorita157 on Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi – Episode 4 – Satoko Tries to Get Konoha to Notice HerMay 5, 2025

RSS Kireina Yuri

  • Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi – Episode 4 – The Shy Nana May 4, 2025
  • Maebashi Witches – Episode 5 – Never Pays to Cheat May 4, 2025
  • Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi – Episode 3 – Shion’s Money Problems and the Weekend Trip April 27, 2025
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Subscribe and Follow Us For New Content

If you want to receive the latest posts in your email, you can subscribe to this blog via email or click the follow button to follow this blog dirrectly using a Mastodon or Misskey account.

To follow this blog via Wordpress Reader, click the button on the right.

Follow Chikorita157’s Anime Blog on WordPress.com
Follow Kireina Yuri on WordPress.com

Follow us on Mastodon or BlueSky for the latest blog updates and Anime/Manga/Video Games related toots

Note for Bluesky users: Follow @ap.brid.gy first before following

Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on Bluesky
Get a Mastodon Account

© 2009–2025 James M. All rights reserved. Images are owned by their respective owners.

All text on this page is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Powered by Mai Theme.

Privacy Policy

mastodonMisskey tumblrrss