How Much Does An Anime Animator Make In Japan

Pinterent November 03, 2023 Comment

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The Animator Dormitory Project runs a YouTube channel, which regularly shares information about labor issues in the anime industry. The latest video breaks down the earnings of a new animator in 2019, which was their first year active in the industry. Their total income for the year was 668, 000 yen (US$6, 000), which evens out to a monthly average of 74, 000 yen (US$670).

According to the graph below, the earnings on a month-to-month basis were inconsistent, rarely getting above a few hundred US dollars per month.

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They remark that their income might actually be on the higher end as far as first-year animators go. She has often heard that 50, 000 yen (US$450) per month is a typical figure. On the low end, some might make around 30, 000 yen (US$270) per month.

In January 2020, they earned 14, 000 yen (US$130), which was their lowest pay since becoming an animator. They explain that one of the reasons behind their low earnings in January was that they took time off to be with their family, but also because the payment for large projects can be transferred several months after the job was accepted. Even with savings, it's hard to make ends meet like this, they explain, which is why freelancers have to factor this in when deciding which jobs to take on.

The full video is embedded below, and is available with English subtitles. It shares the mundane details of working as an animator, including the work environment and some of the techniques required of the craft.

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First-year animators make a significantly below-average income even among other young members of the anime industry. According to a 2019 Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) survey, the mean average yearly income of young people aged between 20 to 24 in the anime industry is 1, 550, 000 yen (US$14, 000). This figure is 1 million yen less than the national average for the age group, according to data from the National Tax Agency.

The Animator Dormitory is a dormitory located in Tokyo for new animators operated by the non-profit organization, Animator Supporters. The 2020 Animator Dormitory Project has raised US$24, 783 so far. The project is also accepting donations via Patreon.We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019.

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These classic shows and many others led the charge; between 2002 and 2017, the Japanese animation industry doubled in size to more than $19 billion annually. One of the most influential and renowned anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion, finally debuted on Netflix this month, marking the end of years of anticipation and a new pinnacle in anime’s global reach.

But anime’s outward success conceals a disturbing underlying economic reality: Many of the animators behind the onscreen magic are broke and face working conditions that can lead to burnout and even suicide.

The tension between a ruthless industry structure and anime’s artistic idealism forces animators to suffer exploitation for the sake of art, with no solution in sight.

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A popular anime TV series, said the talent shortage is a serious ongoing problem — with nearly 200 animated TV series alone made in Japan each year, there aren’t enough skilled animators to go around. Instead, studios rely on a large pool of essentially unpaid freelancers who are passionate about anime.

At the entry level are “in-between animators, ” who are usually freelancers. They’re the ones who make all the individual drawings after the top-level directors come up with the storyboards and the middle-tier “key animators” draw the important frames in each scene.

In-between animators earn around 200 yen per drawing — less than $2. That wouldn’t be so bad if each artist could crank out 200 drawings a day, but a single drawing can take more than an hour. That’s not to mention anime’s meticulous attention to details that are by and large ignored by animation in the West, like food, architecture, and landscape, which can take four or five times longer than average to draw.

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“Even if you move up the ladder and become a key-frame animator, you won’t earn much, ” Adachi said. “And even if your title is a huge hit, like

, you won’t make any of it. … It’s a structural problem in the anime industry. There’s no dream [job as an animator].”

Working conditions are grim. Animators often fall asleep at their desks. Henry Thurlow, an American animator living and working in Japan, told BuzzFeed News he has been hospitalized multiple times due to illness brought on by exhaustion.

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One studio, Madhouse, was recently accused of violating labor code: Employees were working nearly 400 hours per month and went 37 consecutive days without a single day off. A male animator’s 2014 suicide was classified as a work-related incident after investigators found he had worked more than 600 hours in the month leading up to his death.

Part of the reason studios use freelancers is so they don’t need to worry about the labor code. Since freelancers are independent contractors, companies can enforce grueling deadlines while saving money by not providing benefits.

“The problem with anime is that it just takes way too long to make, ” Zakoani, an animator at Studio Yuraki and Douga Kobo, said. “It’s extremely meticulous. One cut — one scene — would have three to four animators working on it. I make the rough drawings, and then two other people would check it, a more senior animator and the director. Then it gets sent back to me and I clean it up. Then it gets sent to another person, the in-betweener, and they make the final drawings.”

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According to the Japanese Animation Creators Association, an animator in Japan earns on average ¥1.1 million (~$10, 000) per year in their 20s, ¥2.1 million (~$19, 000) in their 30s, and a livable but still meager ¥3.5 million (~$31, 000) in their 40s and 50s. The poverty line is Japan is ¥2.2 million.

Animators make ends meet any way they can. Terumi Nishii, a freelance animator and game designer, earns most of her income from video game animation because she has to take care of her parents. On an animator’s salary, she would have little chance of feeding herself.

“Luckily, my family is from Tokyo, so I could live with my parents and somehow get by. As an in-between animator, I was making ¥70, 000 yen (~$650) a month.”

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And the “god of manga.” Tezuka was responsible for an endless catalog of innovations and precedents in manga, Japanese comics, and anime, onscreen animation. In the early 1960s, with networks unwilling to take the risk on an animated series, Tezuka massively undersold his show to get it on air.

“Basically, Tezuka and his company were going to take a loss for the actual show, ” said Michael Crandol, an assistant professor of Japanese studies at Leiden University. “They planned to make up for the loss with

Toys and figures and merchandise, branded candy. … But because that particular scenario worked for Tezuka and the broadcasters, it became the status quo.”

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Tezuka’s company made up the deficit and the show was a success, but he unknowingly set a dangerous precedent: making it impossible for those who followed in his footsteps to earn a living wage. Diane Wei Lewis points out in a recent study that women, who often worked on animation from home, were especially vulnerable to exploitation and paid even less.

Nowadays, when production committees set the budget for shows, there is a long-established precedent to keep costs low. The revenue is divided up among the television networks, manga publishers, and toy companies. “The parent companies make money from the merchandising tie-ins, ” Crandol said, “but the budget for the rank-and-file animators is separate.”

“These prices are so ridiculous because they’re still based on what Tezuka came up with, ” said Thurlow. “And back then, the drawings were very simple … you had a circle head and dot eyes, and maybe you can draw an in-between in 10 minutes. I could earn some money at that pace … but Japanese anime, [now] one drawing is so detailed. You’ve worked for an hour for two bucks.”

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Thurlow added that there is an expectation that you quit when you get married. “Because if you’re married, you need to spend

A charming body-swap romance that became anime’s biggest box office success, features a catalog of gorgeously rendered landscapes worthy of an art gallery.

The depictions of the food alone are worthy of a “Top Ten Foods in Tokyo” listicle: oily ramen with pork