Anime
production staff and other professionals have recently expressed concern
about the sustainability of the sector in the face of the depreciation of the Japanese yen against
essential currencies such as the Korean won and the Chinese yuan.
Recent reports
from Nikkei Asia and Japan Times reveal that the yen is at its lowest
level in 16 years against the won and its lowest level against the yuan since
1993 . Animator Otarou explained why this was significant in a recent
Twitter post in April:
- " The weakness
of the yen is also having a significant impact on the anime industry, as
foreign companies that were able to do business with us until the
beginning of the year now say they can no longer accept orders at the same
prices ."
Most
anime studios act as contractors to production committees, entrusting them with
budgets for their services, which they use to subcontract studios. Animator Otarou continues:
- « On the other hand,
the committee's budget does not change, and the studio has no choice but
to cut its profits to compensate for the weak yen or reduce the cost of
production. Furthermore, the purchasing power of anime fans is also
decreasing .
This last
comment comes from the episode director of the animes “Mysterious
Disappearances” and “Bartender: Glass of God”, Kentaro Mizuno .
Mizuno has highlighted this issue in several posts this year:
- « It has come to a
point where good animators and capable companies in China and Korea no
longer take Japanese jobs, and even if they do, they cannot make a profit
because the yen is worth less and less. Even though this
point has been reached, do you [the government] plan to do nothing? If
things continue like this, sooner or later Japan will sink. Japan's
talented animators and companies will be absorbed by foreign companies.
They will be dominated…exploited. That would be the case .
Japan's
dependence on outsourcing is due to cheaper labor, especially in Korea and
China . If this
cannot be maintained, it would likely force the number of productions to be
reduced, or the already overworked and underpaid anime staff would have to work
harder to compensate.
A 2021
statistic from the Animator Dormitory Project claimed that 90% of animators
left their jobs within three years, so the increased loads could be disastrous. Naturally, this also has real
effects on viewers, such as production problems and cancellations, and the
strengthening of the duopoly of animes full of clichés and those that repeat
the same formula of previous successes.
Forum: NikkeiAsia
