News Japan faces shortage of 30,000 animators, putting anime industry at risk

[thomas]

Japan's anime industry is beginning to feel the labour crunch: By 2050, the number of animators working in Japan is predicted to decline by nearly 30% compared to 2019 levels. Even as the anime industry continues to thrive, this labour shortage is becoming increasingly severe. In 2023, the Japanese anime market, including merchandise and streaming, reached a record high of ¥3.34 trillion (approximately $23 billion), a 14% increase from 2022. Notably, ¥1.72 trillion of that total came from overseas markets, meaning international revenue now surpasses domestic earnings.

Looking ahead, the Japanese government has set a 2033 export target of ¥20 trillion for the broader content industry, which includes video games. If anime maintains its current proportion of those exports, international anime sales could rise fourfold to ¥6.2 trillion.

The decline is already taking place, largely driven by overwork among experienced animators, as well as low wages and limited career opportunities for younger ones. It is difficult to acquire the necessary skills at a university or vocational school, and with few reliable newcomers to support them, mid-level professionals and animation directors often take on additional workloads as demand grows. Many veteran animators, exhausted from constantly correcting the mistakes of less experienced staff, eventually leave the industry. At the same time, younger animators frequently quit when they are relegated to nonessential subcontracting tasks and see little chance for career advancement. [...] Experienced animators can earn over 1 million yen per month, but "the pay per project hasn't increased," said animator Terumi Nishii. "My workload has only grown, as I now handle several jobs at once."

Paywall alert:

Wanted: 30,000 animators. Japan's anime future at risk

Studios scramble amid 'acute shortage of animators, directors, production assistants'

asia.nikkei.com

 

[dracuella]

Well, animation studios, how about paying your animators a living wage?

This article from AnimeNewsNetwork (ANN) is from five years ago but I highly doubt things have changed drastically for the better since then. It points out the difficulties new animators face, such as unsteady and very low income. The issue is so bad that many live in dormitories in order to make ends meet, something put in motion by the Animator Dormitory Project.

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).

One major problem is the fact that most animators are hired as contractors, making earning a steady income close to impossible, especially when you're new. I remember watching this video back then and wondering how long passion can keep you going when you earn so little that food on the table is even at risk.

 

[Ukigumo]

How I weep at the very thought of fewer anime animators

Surely it can all be done with AI anyway?

 

[JayJJ]

Japan's anime industry is beginning to feel the labour crunch: By 2050, the number of animators working in Japan is predicted to decline by nearly 30% compared to 2019 levels. Even as the anime industry continues to thrive, this labour shortage is becoming increasingly severe. In 2023, the Japanese anime market, including merchandise and streaming, reached a record high of ¥3.34 trillion (approximately $23 billion), a 14% increase from 2022. Notably, ¥1.72 trillion of that total came from overseas markets, meaning international revenue now surpasses domestic earnings.

Looking ahead, the Japanese government has set a 2033 export target of ¥20 trillion for the broader content industry, which includes video games. If anime maintains its current proportion of those exports, international anime sales could rise fourfold to ¥6.2 trillion.




Paywall alert:

Wanted: 30,000 animators. Japan's anime future at risk

Studios scramble amid 'acute shortage of animators, directors, production assistants'

asia.nikkei.com

It's really interesting to see the scale of the anime revenue growth, even with the workforce shrinking. It shows how global demand is driving the industry forward. Speaking of global online trends, I came across https://casinonlinenieuwe.com/buitenlandse-online-casinos/ which reviews international gaming sites. It discusses how foreign online casinos operate and how they are rated for safety and legality. It's a reminder of how digital markets are evolving around the world, both in entertainment and gaming.

The growth is impressive, but without better wages and conditions for animators, sustaining global demand and hitting 2033 export targets seems unrealistic!

 

[Ukigumo]

AI, AI, AI, AI!

I have a habit of asking everyone if they're worried about advancing AI taking over and doing a better and cheaper job that they are able; IT workers, insurance people, taxi drivers, GPs etc. They all say "Oh they'll always need someone to supervise and ensure the AI is doing things correctly. I'll be fine!"

 

[johnnyG]

First the article:

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up the issue of whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning ‌away a case involving a computer scientist from Missouri who was denied a copyright for a piece of visual art made by his AI system.
Plaintiff Stephen Thaler had appealed to the justices after lower courts upheld a U.S. Copyright Office decision that the AI-crafted visual art at issue in the case was ineligible for copyright protection because it did not have a human creator.

Thaler, of St. Charles, Missouri, applied for ⁠a federal copyright registration in 2018 covering "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," visual art he said his AI technology "DABUS" created. The image shows train tracks entering a portal, surrounded by what appears to be green and purple plant imagery.

The Copyright Office rejected his application in 2022, finding that creative works must have human authors to be eligible to receive a copyright.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration had urged the Supreme Court not to hear Thaler's appeal.
The Copyright Office has separately rejected bids by artists for copyrights on images generated by the AI system Midjourney. Those artists argued that they were entitled to copyrights for images they created with AI assistance - unlike Thaler, who said his system created "A Recent ‌Entrance to ⁠Paradise" independently.

A federal judge in Washington upheld the office's decision in Thaler's case in 2023, writing that human authorship is a "bedrock requirement of copyright." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the rulingin 2025.
Thaler's lawyers told the Supreme Court in a filing that his case was of "paramount importance" considering the rapid rise of generative AI.
With a refusal by the ⁠court to hear the appeal, Thaler's lawyers said, "even if it later overturns the Copyright Office's test in another case, it will be too late. The Copyright Office will have irreversibly and negatively impacted AI development and use in the creative industry during ⁠critically important years."

"Although the Copyright Act does not define the term 'author,' multiple provisions of the act make clear that the term refers to a human rather than a machine," the administration said.

The Supreme Court previously rejected Thaler's request ⁠to hear his argument in a separate case involving prototypes for a beverage holder and a light beacon concerning whether AI-generated inventions should be eligible for U.S. patent protection. His patent applications were rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on similar grounds.

Some discussion here.

I'll guess that one of the future values of AI generated art hinges on whether it can be copyrighted or not--the generated work, or the prompts that resulted in it.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

It will be interesting to see if the law can keep AI from bringing back the dead in all new movies. Maybe John Wayne as a Star Wars cowboy , etc.. The quality of AI videos is stunning already.

 

[Ukigumo]

It will be interesting to see if the law can keep AI from bringing back the dead in all new movies. Maybe John Wayne as a Star Wars cowboy , etc.. The quality of AI videos is stunning already.

I'd do all I could to prevent that white-supremacist racist, bigoted, homophobic, anti-indigenous and terrible actor from being 'brought back 'to the silver screen! He was a despicable excuse for a man.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Hummm??? Maybe a remake of The Quiet Man with Margaret Thatcher as John's love interest ?

 

[Ukigumo]

Hummm??? Maybe a remake of The Quiet Man with Margaret Thatcher as John's love interest ?
View attachment 135571

 

[Grandpa Frank]

A true American hero we all loved in the 50's & 60's. I think Trump has a little bit of John's soul in him , LOL. I think I've seen every one of his movies at least 10 times. The closest thing we have to him now days is Clint Eastwood.

 

[Ukigumo]

Your hero's are very strange…

 

[Grandpa Frank]

You had to live in Maine in the early 50's. "Dirty Japs" were still very hated. Gays were put in jail , beat up and even killed. Liberals & transgenders would for the most part ,

have been put in mental institutions if they existed then. It wasn't until after the Vietnam war and the rise of "hippies" came about that minds opened up a bit. It's pretty much accepted that lessons learned in your childhood often stick with you as an adult. So I accept many of my views are from the age of dinosaurs and at 76 years old are probably not going to change because my "inner child" can't handle it. When you're young , you usually have a filter between your brain and mouth that limits what you say ;that often fades away with age and we are considered crazy old coots.

 

[mdchachi]

You had to live in Maine in the early 50's. "Dirty Japs" were still very hated. Gays were put in jail , beat up and even killed. Liberals & transgenders would for the most part , have been put in mental institutions if they existed then. It wasn't until after the Vietnam war and the rise of "hippies" came about that minds opened up a bit. It's pretty much accepted that lessons learned in your childhood often stick with you as an adult. So I accept many of my views are from the age of dinosaurs and at 76 years old are probably not going to change because my "inner child" can't handle it. When you're young , you usually have a filter between your brain and mouth that limits what you say ;that often fades away with age and we are considered crazy old coots.

That's exactly why it's a good thing that John Wayne is long gone. It's just unfortunate that some modern, living people still hold some of those views. If you want to watch old cowboy movies dust off the Roy Rogers tapes. Back when there were real cowboys that could sing and wear stage makeup.

 

[thomas]

I have always found classic Westerns à la John Wayne awfully boring. It took Sergio Leone and the music of Ennio Morricone to make them entertaining and fun. Ask Clint Eastwood.

 

[johnnyG]

Maybe he didn't need to "act" in this one: The Searchers - Wikipedia

 

[Ukigumo]

That's exactly why it's a good thing that John Wayne is long gone. It's just unfortunate that some modern, living people still hold some of those views. If you want to watch old cowboy movies dust off the Roy Rogers tapes. Back when there were real cowboys that could sing and wear stage makeup.

I liked 'Champion the Wonder Horse'

 

[Ukigumo]

I often hear variations on the epithet '…it was a different time…", and I feel it's a somewhat lazy argument but, at in Marion Morrison's case, those attitudes were seen as unreasonable even in 'his day', evidenced by Marlon Brandon sending a native American to reject his Best Actor Oscar and to no doubt wind up Marion, which it clearly did.

 

[Lothor]

I often hear variations on the epithet '…it was a different time…", and I feel it's a somewhat lazy argument but, at in Marion Morrison's case, those attitudes were seen as unreasonable even in 'his day', evidenced by Marlon Brandon sending a native American to reject his Best Actor Oscar and to no doubt wind up Marion, which it clearly did.

I agree. All the people of GF's age grew up in 1950s and 1960s, when homosexuality was illegal in the UK and considered a disease, and the idea that some people may not be exactly male or female was anathema. Among those people now in their seventies and eighties, some don't have a problem with homosexuality and alternative genders and some do. And some don't have a filter between their brain and mouth and some do. And background doesn't inevitably determine views. I've spent a lot of time this year visiting an 80-year-old American in hospital who is from a very conservative military family but is as liberal as you can get.

People grow old in different ways.

 

[johnnyG]

This is one that I read back in grad school--a structuralist analysis/interpretation. Quite popular then. If you look at the "frequently bought together" and "similar items" links there, you can browse various similar analyses. (a google search on that title may get you a pdf version)

I used 4-5 parts of this series when I was trying to teach american film here--but tho it was good, time didn't allow for the episode called "The Western" (listed as episode 4 there).