Japanese Animators “Earn $3/Hour”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: May 2, 2010 14:27 JST
- Tags: Animation, Blu-ray, Business, DVD Extras, Marketing, Moe, Production Controversy, TV
The notorious poverty of Japanese animators once again come in for scrutiny, with animators reportedly earning an hourly wage of only $3, less than a burger flipper.
Average incomes for anime industry employees are said to be pathetic even by Japanese standards – actual animators received an average annual wage of ¥1,050,000 ($10,000). Artists received ¥2,320,000, whilst performers could expect only ¥3,330,000 and even directors only received ¥4,950,000.
Looking at the results by age reveals it is most probably seniority and not merit which is the primary determinant of wages, a practice which became entrenched in Japan in the post-war period and still dominates the labour market – those in their twenties received an average of ¥1,100,000, those in their thirties ¥2,130,000, whilst those aged 40-60 found their earnings peaking at a meagre ¥4,000,000.
Actually dividing this income by hours worked (Japanese companies not infrequently demand massive amounts of unpaid overtime) reveals an even more pitiful truth – the average hourly wage for animators is estimated at ¥298 ($3), that for artists ¥689, and that for directors ¥1,412.
For reference, McDonald’s employees in Tokyo can expect an hourly wage of ¥1,000.
Japan’s plunging marriage and birth rates have often been blamed on these kind of hiring practices – employees in their twenties and thirties increasingly report that girlfriends, let alone wives, are out of their reach. The situation would appear to be even more aggravated in the anime industry.
The survey also asked about job satisfaction – unsurprisingly, 62% reported their love of drawing was the main motivator, as opposed to other factors such as money. 16.6% reported grave dissatisfaction with their work, 37% “dissatisfaction” and only 3.5% were “very satisfied.” 70% reported dissatisfaction with their wages.
With studio output declining recently it seems unlikely matters will improve.
Zero no Tsukaima F Yuri Skinship Anime
Yozora Mikazuki & Sena Kashiwazaki Figures
To Love-Ru Darkness Totally Tentacular
Ano Hana Naruko Anjo Anal Dress Figure
Top 10 Most Followed Seiyuu
Wonder Festival 2012 Winter Wondrous As Ever
Ciel nosurge: “Your Date With Ion = $170″
Nisemonogatari – “Where Did All The Ero Go!?”
Police Hunt Ushijima for “Public Indecency”
Cops Bust Cop in Nude BDSM Club Raid
K-ON! “Causes Keionbu Girl Band Boom”
Vippers vs Vankers: 2ch Targets “Korean Propaganda”
Overflow Delays “Final” Game: “We Are Not Going Bankrupt!”
Ritsu Topless Manga Time – “She Has Boobs After All!”
Top 10 Most Boring Anime of Winter 2012
Behold: The ONACOUNTER
Future Diary Unveils Eye-Popping Scenes of Sex & Guro
K-ON! Pilgrims Invade London
Top 10 Essential Anime Elements
Lolicon Teacher Rapes Pupils 37 Times, Faces 30 Years
Wonder Festival 2012 Winter Cosplay
“Post The Highest Level Cosplay Ever!”
“Share The Cutest Cosplay Ever”
“Dolls vs Figures – Which is Best?”
“Why Do Girls Always Have Such Cute Rooms!?”
Ranka Lee Wedding Dress Cosplay by Tomia
Shoko-tan’s Madoka & Ika-chan Cosplay “Excessively Cute”
Guilty Crown Yuzuriha Inori Cosplay by Sasa
IdolMaster G4U: “Who Needs 3D Idols Now?”
Anegasaki Nene Cosplay by Rinami
Animator in my country earn less then 3$ >_>
Realy suck right
same here, i only earn $0.50/hour here and actually more sux than $3/hour.
(T^T)
Piracy is not the problem. It's the studios. They're trying to squeeze too much work out of each animator, resulting in too much overtime.
Though speaking of piracy... It's a similar factor which contributes to low sales in other areas, trying to squeeze too much out of a market. In Japan, people can afford to buy a lot more manga for their dollar.
Don't believe me? Okay, let's put it this way. Walk into a bookstore like Chapters with, say, fifteen bucks. You'll walk out with a single volume and enough change to buy a small, overpriced coffee for three bucks. Walk into a bookstore in Japan with, say, fifteen hundred yen, and you're walking out of the store with three tankobon, the equivalent of a stateside volume.
True that, I wanted negima season 2 but they slpit a 26 EPISODE SEASON INTO TWO PARTS for like 45 bucks a part. So if I wanted 26 episodes of a anime I liked I would spend 90 bucks. I'm glad they released it as one whole part but I have to wait (I find girl meets girl in omnibus form ^_^)
In my country they even earn less than 3$ >_>
This article fails to address one very important open question. Where does the money actually go? If a show is moderately successful and pulls in a fair amount of sponsor support, high ratings, live event ticket sales, promotional items sales, and eventually DVD and merchandise sales, you would expect the creators to get quite a bit of that money after operational expenses are paid. It's painfully obvious to me that someone in this chain is getting a very unbalanced portion of the earnings for a successful show.
I would love to know how the anime business is structured. It must be very, very different from the software business.
As long there are plenty of retards willing to do the job for these wages it will stay that way...
Hopefully this situation will ease down a bit when TV become connected with internet.
When that happens, studios won't have to rely on those crappy importers to get their animes abroad as they all will have their own websites to stream those series.
You forgot one thing...they are Japanese - means 1) it will be blocked for people overseas , 2) they won't sub it, it will be only in Japanese ...no win - no win situation
you forgot about dubs. Subs are only for a niche market (People here).
These fucking idiots. There's an entire fucking WORLD of people that want your product, but you only worry about selling to other Japanese. The first company to throw off the xenophobic bullshit and *embrace* a world-wide audience via the internet will be richer than fuck. Let your fans know that you make animation for everybody-make people all over the world want to give you money for your product by establishing a relationship with them.
As an capitalist American it breaks my heart to see a product with such appeal so poorly marketed and distributed.
Haha, the guy directing the anime only earns 1.5x more than some guy who flips the burgers and wipes the tables.
Such crummy pay. I laugh at those who say, "But this is for the dream!" Yeah, right. Go work in a job that pays $3 per hour for a few years, then come back and talk about living the dream.
How the hell do those people survive the days with $3 an hour? That's saying everything in japan is becoming cheap which it isn't.
WE PROVIDE FULL HOTEL SERVICE FOR $2.95 FOR ONE PERSON. FAMILY PACKAGE IS A WHOPPING $3.00. COME STAY AT OUR HOTEL.
I wonder where all the money from DVDs, BDs, posters and so on flows.
Theres only one word coming to my mind: Slavedriver...
According to a blog I once read, this is caused by the fact that money paid per cell being static for both colourers and drawers- While computer colouring has made colouring easier, it has made drawing harder. Thus, colourers get decent pay and animators are grossly underpaid.
So where does all that money spent on DVDs and Blueray discs go?
If you bought the stuff in America then the money goes to the American industry.
People just don't seem to understand that when America license an anime they pay the Japanese industry to use the product. After that the Japanese will not get any money from the product sold in America.
>If you bought the stuff in America then the money goes to the American industry.
You make that sound like a bad thing. God forbid investors, producers, and retailers make some money from releasing legitimate products.
>After that the Japanese will not get any money from the product sold in America.
Incorrect. Most licenses require both an advance, and royalties based on units sold, or a schedule, or when set sales milestones are met. Licenses also have termination dates, so when a US licensee is not performing to expectation, the Japanese licensor may choose to let the license expire, or refuse licenses on later episodes.
Well that would explain a lot since Hollywood is well known for downright predatory practices.
Being overly xenophobic and having low replacement rates, i.e. less babies, will make japan a country where over two thirds of its populace is of retirement age in the decades to come. With such sad facts ahead of them, it's just normal for industries to start and favoring "seniority" over anything else...
Hooray for minimum wage!
here in mexico you get like 4$ for 8 ours of work, so i think this is a sweet deal
Working with that low minimum wages feels wrong, heck it is wrong. *sighs* I'm surprised most animators is pulling through with their love for drawing, even though they know its a bit unfair to be working with little wages they've been given. I just don't got much to say about this.
Wow in Europe we earn 6-10€(8-13$) per hour
3$...Couldnt even imagine how i should live with that..Oo
3$ a hour can't even pay the gas bill....
However you can get a decente meal in Portugal for just 5€=8$
Well, one can see why some of the animators might be lacking motivation on quality of work...
Now I gotta wonder how much a miner or construction worker in a third-world country would make in a month?
Okay, so this is just stupid.
Getting $3 a hour is crap. When I was working, I got about $70 a day, about $9.50 a hour. Mind you, I was working in the IT industry.
I admit that I do torrent anime, but I would possibly stop doing that and actually help the companies recover lost profits if the companies that do the animation actually do English/Japanese subtitles. So, when I buy the DVD, I can pop it into my computer, load up MPlayer/Windows Media Player, set Subtitles to ON and in English, get some popcorn and watch a season of K-ON in English. Or they ship a English Dub for Western countries.
Yes, I know it's easy to say, but seriously, I would. If DVDs where $30 a pop, sure, I'd go out and buy DVD copies of K-ON, Lucky Star and Strike Witches. Heck, pop a season on Pay-TV western services like Foxtel and Austar if Japan's anime industry needs some cash in a hurry. I look at prices for getting DVDs imported from Japan and they are like $100 AUD. Too expensive IMO.
I assume all profits from the figmas and nenodroids don't go back to the artists/designers either?
I'd be mad if K-ON turned into some scribble.
In scandinavian countries like Denamrk and Sweden the minimum salary is around 2000Yen/hour ... more than 60 year anime director ...
No comment on the taxes or unemployment rate?
1. Taxes are not a problem, if you get something useful for it. Not, like, when 35% of tax revenue goes to military.
2. Just now, 5 - 9 % in 4 countries. With good unemployment insurances for all. During last 25 years unemployment has been under 4 % average.
I don`t say it`s perfect, but tax money can in fact be spent wisely.
in video game industry -in france- graphic artists are usually barely paid better than testers, though they are often here to compensate the project's lack of consistence.
because graphics are regarded as a lowly manual task that anybody could take up, describe or explain -from a manager point of view. like game design ("oh.. you just write down stuff, anybody could do that, after all")
plus it's a "dream job" and bosses like to assume you're willing to work only for glory. which isn't quite false, i admit :)
I got paid more working for my fucking mom. At age 11.
Wonder what you´re paid for...
Helping around in the store.
TV animation industry in general demands unpaid overtime, not just in japan but north america as well. Budgets are shrinking everywhere, and they have x amount of dollars to deliver a product. Don't blame the studios, blame the producers and the networks who pay to have these shows made.
if they do what the company that makes grand tarismo did (puting amenities like a awesome media center a kitchen showers and a laundromat) and letting them sleep under there desks $3 an hour would go a lot further
It's a labor of love. Nothing else could keep them in the business.
Most of animaters are women.
Even though we're all sympathetic, I doubt we can do anything to change the state of things. As a lot of people already mentioned, buying DVDs and ceasing fansubbing won't help. And there's the problem of animators actually WILLING to work with such low wages.
Seriously, they should all go on strike, like the writers of Hollywood.
damn it man this sux. i wish i could buy dvds but there so damn expensive and not worth it. also it takes like 2yrs to get anything over here, is k-on! season 1 even here yet?
by the time i get to go 2 japan anime will be dead or crap. -_-
Why the creators of Gintama said "Anime is hardwork and the pay is low"
Makes you wonder....where is all the Otaku allowances going when they buy DVD sets for hundreds of dollars?
Wow, 3 bucks an hour to do essentially nothing of value for society. Good deal. C:
the only thing that apport to society is entretainament.
just that
same as i used to make on a liquor store in US believe it or not...and even got asked why i quit...
No wonder some animators take drugs ( cf. naruto shippuden)
QUICK, EVERYONE FEEL SYMPATHETIC NOW!!!
Nothing to do with pirating never!
Its all the evil companies fault they make no profit from people who dont spend a cent on their products.
QUICKLY EVERYONE! LET'S ALL FEEL SYMPATHETIC ALL AT ONCE!!!!! Really there are people who are paid less than that throughout the world hint hint 3rd world countries.
comparing the absolute wages of impoverished countries to developed countries is one of the dumbest things ever to grace the propagandist scene. How much is the cost of living in a 3rd world country compared to the cost in Japan? (hint: it's not the same)
If you know how to save cash and cut costs then 1$ a day is sufficient for food already... though in the Philippines costs rose that we need $3 just to get by for a day....
What the hell? 3 dollars an hour? Is there no minimum wage in Japan? If not, it's time that there is!
Wow. Minimum wage here in the U.S. is a little more than double that. That's pretty damn sad, especially with all the work that goes into animation.
Wow, I make 9x more than an animator and I still complain about my salary. I applaud their idiocy.
I WELCOME THE DEATH OF ANIME
wow is all i can say....
I should give some of my money to my favorite animator lol
I'm not saying these wages aren't ridiculous bullshit and they deserve better, but just imagine how little the overseas animators get for inbetweening and stuff. <___<
You'd think that with all this moeblob shit that sells a hojillion dollars worth of useless plastic garbage and DVDs/BDs they'd be able to pay animators better...
HA! My bros dreams've been crushed! HAHAHAHA!
I find it hard to believe that this is not an exaggeration. I mean c'mon that'll just be slavery and force this industry to be extinct.
The source is an animator industry group/union so it's possible they have an incentive to exaggerate.
Less we recall back 5 to 10 years ago, there were animes pumping out by the ton each season. That number has been dwindling at a steady rate over that course of time. Eventually we'll be lucky enough to get 10 anime a season, if this keeps up.
I thought that, around the same timeline as you suggested, studios hired more foreigners as animators, because I recall clearly on seeing Korean names popping up in the credits.
It was also around the same time animes started to look more like a Flash animation(though backgrounds pretty much remained as detailed).
That's called outsourcing to other countries. Much like factory jobs go to Asia, so do inbetween artist jobs. Tweening is roughly the janitor work of 2D animation.
I have to call B.S. on this. There is no wage laws in Japan?
If this is indeed true, and not sensationalized, it's so very sad.
I am working two nights a week as a bartender while going through school, and I make almost as much as they do in their full time, dream job.
I guess animating in Japan is truly a labor of love, and every time I see amazing animation, I'll feel grateful.
Stop smiling, Konata.
Damn $3/hour? Yeah, and we're the pirates.
Here's a "Foreign Devil" concept: The Union.
I'm sure the guys that own the animation houses gross many millions even in bad times, and I don't mean Yen.
They already have them.
The issue here is just that artists are artists - you couldn't keep them away from a canvas if you tried. They will work for a pittance if it means doing what they feel compelled to do, and you'd be a fool not to take advantage of that.
@anon 20:23
welcome to the real world, here's your lei if you didn't get one at the door
a slave to their own dream and hobby? shit...
@Barbarian of Gor 15:27
Huhhh.... I wonder how well that would actually work.
I wonder how long it would be before union management was corrupted, and began taking under-the-table "gifts of appreciation" (bribes) from company management in exchange for "being understanding" on "certain issues of concern" to management.
I write this as an American member of a corrupt union.
Even their corruption is a sign of their success.
@ Barbarian of Gor 17:40 :
Success (economic benefit) for people employed directly by the union, yes.
Success (economic benefit) for the workers the union is _supposed_ to represent, no.
>>GTFO less animators = less anime too
And plus loli reduces crimes that are commited.
LOL I'd like to see you show me studies that actually support that stupid theory of yours.
Less anime? I'm fine with that. Animes now are stupid moe loli ero trash anyway. They could've made actual great ones like the Rorouni Kenshin OAV or even Escaflowne but nooo. Instead they're making trash that you guys fap to.
Japan is the land with the biggest abundance of fetish porn for just about every taste, available virtually everywhere. By far.
Japan is the land with the lowest sexual crime rates of all industrial countries. By far.
The abundance of porn was steadily increasing in the last few decades. The sexual crime rates were steadily sinking in the last few decades.
Want statistics? Use the intertubez. Happy now?
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap-crime-rapes
Your beloved Japan is in the top 20.
You were saying?
Before you go pulling generalized stuff out of your ass, go use the "intertubez" first.
Very safe. Japan has just about the lowest rates of all industrial countries.
It's no use Schrobby, he's just like those people who claim for the past decade that violent games = violent behaviour. We all know that little by little they've been proven wrong.
Also, he is a troll. A bad one that is.
That statistics of yours is bullshit as it is per country. Obviously bigger countries have more, duh.
Now, when we look at the rate per capita on the same site this tells us something...
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita
Japan is placed #54. 0.017737 rapes per 1,000 people.
Australia has 0.777999 rapes per 1,000 people. 43.9 times the amount Japan has.
Canada has 0.733089 rapes per 1,000 people. 41.3 times the amount Japan has.
USA have 0.301318 rapes per 1,000 people. 17 times the amount of Japan.
Sadly that statistics doesn't show incline or decline at all or I could prove that this part of what I said is true as well.
You were saying?
Before you go pulling generalized stuff out of your ass, go use the "intertubez" first.
Not only finding statistics, understanding them is quite important, too.
Either way, these statistics are bullshit. Reporting of rape crimes vary greatly, in some countries (i put it out bluntly: to example Greece, Jemen & Saudi-Arabia) officials do not want to receive women`s reports at all. Crime victims are seen as most guilty. Those countries send fake numbers to these statistics, pulled out of the hat.
Per capita list doesn`t have Sweden included, it should be found around 30th place. Very sloppy, not serious statistics job. There maybe is more similar disappearances.
Very superficial summary.
But i think t`s safe to say Japan is not among the worst in reality.
Hear that guys (especially 2chners)? Now stop complaining if the rack at the background occasionally changes its height.
"The survey also asked about job satisfaction – unsurprisingly, 62% reported their love of drawing was the main motivator, as opposed to other factors..."
And we still see a lot of shitty animes coming out. So much for 'satisfaction'.
Of course, that doesn't apply to the select few titles that are above decent. Maybe the shitty animation quality is a direct result of low pay? Would quality increase if animators are paid more, all round? Being in an industry that requires similar creativity(I don't directly MAKE it. I just have to deal with these kind of people as part of my job) been told by artists that they 'design something as good as the pay', to quote one of them directly.
But I choose to be a skeptic and say this is not the case most of the time.
@ Anon 16:07 :
There's a saying in engineering which I think aplies to anime:
Cheap, Fast, Good. Pick any two.
If the bosses "cheap out" and don't hire enough animators, that raises the number of cuts an animator has to complete in time X, which reduces the amount of time an animator can spend on a single cut, which means the animator -- even a good animator -- has to take shortcuts to make the deadline.
It is tedious work too, imagine not drinking too much water in order to minimize sweating so you dont sweat on your linearts, DURING SUMMER?
Give these people a raise!!! They're way better than idols dammit!!
AV idols can keep their wages though lol
Aren't they doing all this digitally?
@Artefact 16:30:
In the interview/visit-the-studios "extra features" I've seen on anime DVDs over the last ten years, I've seen three modes:
* All by-hand, no computers
* Mixed by-hand and with computers
* All-digital
About 80% of it i digitally draw, but story boards and concept art for series is all hand drawn still (as far as i know) but they might do it differently in japan.
Think of the Japanese Animators you bloody feminazis!!!
You're not the one losing a job...
And fap material...
*shakes fist at pirates*
*pirates animu*
(there need to be more legit channels for animation, crunchyroll needs a fully ad-supported option)
I doubt oversee watchers of fansubs is what's killing their profit. I mean in the end who uploads all the (raws) for such animes.
Non sequitur.
(Translator's Note: Non sequitur means it does not follow)
but more importantly, the revenue must go to the animators instead of the studio execs more - just like musicians.
and it will bode well to have less country restrictions - most shows i wanna see and wanna pay crunchyroll to watch are not available in my region - a fine island in s.e. asia. all i get are anime dubs and chinese subs (i don't know chinese and i don't really like dubs - i just like listening to japanese, i don't hate the VAs) on animax.
i can't get amazon eps, i can't buy itunes as i can't afford an iPod and it's too much of a hassle. i can't get Hulu or Funi videos that americans get for free.
ad-supported free crunchy roll - remember most kids who watch anime don't even have a credit card - how to buy? so ads are a good way in that sense - but they need to get the merch market - cheap to produce, pretty high profits. make it global.
Animators don't create anime, studios do. Animators are just grunt labour, with the entire production being a collaborative effort in a way that an album is not.
Even if Ghibli use other companies to do their inbetweens, they still need a good company to do it.
If what you're saying is true about the difference between movie animators and series : what about KyoAni, Bones; Production I.G., ...?
They're obviously better than other companies.
And we're not even talking about the key artist, who is an animator too. They are crucial to the animation.
Don't underestimate inbetweeners either, an wrong inbetween can ruin a whole sequence.
What the hell?
The quality of animation you get depends on the kind of people you get. I know a mere inbetweener doesn't get to decide anything in the animation progress. But you can't expect a bad inbetweener to work for Studio Ghibli or 4°C.
It's like saying that it doesn't matter whether you pollute or not, because one person isn't even significant.
You do realise the Ghibli often outsource their inbetween work to other companies right?
Ghibli and 4C produce such fine quality works because they have the time to do them. TV series have much stricter deadlines for production and thus often result in much lower standards because of that. Most of the animators within the industry have very similar skills regardless of where they are hired it's the concept artists, storyboarders, designers etc that really make or break companies.
Animators are also the ones who get the damn things to move. Yeah, it's a team effort, but without the animators you'd have a whole bunch of storyboards and character designs.
Well, if at least they like it then you can't blame them.
But seriously, that is really pathetic, I really wonder how can they really cover their expenses with that lame salary?
They can't. The poor guys go to work in fast food joints. That's why we see pizza hut and stuff in anime.
It's a thank you from the animators for providing them a (relatively) good paying job to earn a living...