New ANN report suggests wages for animation in Japan not as bad as previously claimed

In a followup to this previous article, there's now a report on Anime News Network that wages for animation development aren't as bad as what the Asahi Shimbun claimed:

From reports of monthly salaries as low as 160,000 yen (US$1,034) in 2015 to the examples of scant wages seen with 2020's #AnimationPaidMe hashtag, there have been numerous horror stories about working as a newbie animator in Japan—namely, the inability to earn a living wage. To find out if this was still the case, ANN met with numerous industry individuals—from freelance and studio-employed animators to studio heads and animator rights advocates. (This article contains quotes from only a select few of them.)

However, rather than tales of doom and gloom, we found universal agreement that, over the past five years, animator wages and working conditions have improved dramatically. When it comes down to it, this is mostly due to a shift in the inner workings of the anime industry.

“Since the Japanese anime industry continues to expand, we're left with the current situation where there is inevitably a shortage of human resources.” Hiroki Yoshioka, President of animation studio ENGI, told Anime News Network.

Studios are producing more anime now than ever before, but they are struggling to keep up. This is doubly true for 3D animation teams, who face an additional rival for recruiting recently graduated animators, as many 3D animators are more interested in making games than anime, since game companies pay higher wages.

To combat this animator shortage, large-to-mid-size studios—or studios with access to parent companies' resources—have spent the last few years reorganizing their animation departments. “Until about 10 years ago, many animation production companies paid on a commission basis—though they were hiring to a certain extent. However, in recent years, animation production companies have revised their labor standards, making it necessary to hire full-time employees,” Yoshioka explained.

The best place to get these animators? Right out of school. However, that's just the first hurdle. “While hiring characteristics differ between CG and hand-drawn (paper or digital pen) animators, when it comes to hand-drawn animation, one reason for [the difficulty in recruiting] is that the level of training offered at vocational schools and universities is far from sufficient for immediate practical application,” Yoshioka continued. “Therefore, when hiring new graduates, they need to be taught [the job] from scratch.”

Junji Murata, president of MAHO FILM, shares a similar view. “They need to train animators from scratch,” he told us. “Animators are like actors. It takes a lot of training to master first-class acting, so it's not something anyone can do easily—thus, there's a shortage of talent.”

And make no mistake: turning a fresh graduate into a veteran animator is not a short process. “Even if they are paid a fixed salary as full-time employees, their skills are low, requiring companies to continue investing in their employees' growth over an average of five years,” Yoshioka said. “I believe that less than half of these employees reach a level where they can be considered a valuable asset.”

This is right in line with Murata's assessment as well: “Three to five years to become halfway competent. Ten years to become fully competent.”

Well if that's the case, it suggests some animation employees are being awfully fussy when they don't have the full skills needed to qualify, and this in an industry where merit's given higher emphasis than what the USA industry showed in past decades. So, maybe the press was just unwisely playing along without getting the whole story. Obviously, even in Japan this is a problem. So, let's hope some animators will be willing to learn some lessons moving forward about why it pays to prove they believe in being talented as much as in asking for higher salaries. That would do the whole profession a lot more good.