A recent report from
the Japan Animation
Creators Association (JAniCA) has revealed a major problem
surrounding contracts for new animators entering the industry. According to the
report for the year 2023, animators were surveyed to find out how much choice
they had in their first employment contracts when starting to work in the
industry. The data revealed that of the 428 animators surveyed, a
staggering one in five animators (21.7%) received no explanation about the
terms of their contracts when joining the industry, leaving them unaware of
their rights and exposed to potential abuse. This represented the
largest percentage of animators.
The data also
highlighted the relative lack of permanent job opportunities. The
second largest group (18.7%) said they were not offered an employee contract
upon joining the industry and could only opt for a subcontractor contract (without
working directly for the studio).
- The rest of the data showed
that of entertainers hired under employee contracts, 6.5% said
they intentionally sought this arrangement , 1.2% said they opted
for an employee contract after exploring both options with the company,
2.3% said who had no negotiations but were offered both options, and 12.9%
said they were only presented with an employee contract .
- Of the subcontractors, 7.7% said
they intentionally sought this agreement , 1.6% opted for this after exploring both
options, 2.6% did not participate in negotiations but were given both
options, and the aforementioned 18.7% said they were only offered
subcontracting work . 9.6% said they do not know.
“ Kingdom ” animation director Jun
Arai recently explained the lack of permanent job roles in the anime
industry. He noted that since animation studios often do not own the
copyrights to series (they do not capture copyright revenue on the
animes they produce), but rather larger investors, anime studios cannot
afford to retain production workers. permanently. This leads to larger
investors reaping the profits from licensing, events and Blu-ray sales, while
animators are often paid per frame, with one animator recently revealing that
he was paid just $1 per frame.
As the
JAniCA survey suggests, currently 47.3% of animators are freelance or
self-employed, compared to 40.5% of permanent employees. Despite the notoriously low
salaries in the anime industry, with 40% of animators earning less than $16,000
annually, industry figures point out that no one has the courage to speak up.
Terumi
Nishii, lead animation director of “Jujutsu Kaisen 0,” refers to the “village
company” system as a cause. As
Shiji Zero explained, “village companies” are a category of Japanese business
that prioritizes harmony over good ideas, where final action can only
be taken after all members agree . Given that the anime industry has a
long history of verbal contracts based on trust, Nishii cites a reluctance to a
full review as a major factor in why Japanese animators have much worse
salaries and labor rights than foreign ones. In her words, “common
sense is determined by the environment,” meaning no one will want to raise
their voice on their own.
With more animation
studios securing anime copyrights, the industry could see increased wages and
improved job security aligned with other countries. However, the
increase in the number of anime productions, resulting in more low-wage
freelance animators hired to meet demand, makes the fight for better conditions
more challenging.
