The harsh working conditions of animators
They work in environments where animators can work 7 days a week drawing 200 key frames and only get paid a minute amount of money each month, and on top of that have no job security or retirement fund. Despite being well known for its anime, Japan has not been treating its animators well.
Mainichi news reports that Animators have come together to form the Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) in an attempt to improve working conditions and improve the situation where animators are leaving the industry.
JAniCA was set up by Ashida Toyoo, chairman of Studio Live, and currently has approximately 500 members. Ashida says that there is a slow but sure increase in the lack of people working in the animation industry in Japan, and if this goes on, the industry of animation creators within Japan would crash.
Interviews with people in the industry have also revealed the bad conditions of people working in the animation industry, such as somebody who have left her normal job to become an animator and works 12 hours a day, but only earns half of what she used to make, with no overtime pay or health insurance. And somebody who used to live on his own before changing jobs to become an animator, and soon could no longer afford rent and had to return to live with his parents. Somebody who doesn’t even go to see a doctor when sick unless it gets really bad because it costs money.
There are even some animators from the 70s who are now receiving public assistance or are even homeless.
Via: Mainichi
Anime episodes usually cost between 1 to 2 million yen (8,500~17,000 USD) to make each episode, which costs only a fraction compared to the already famously low budget Japanese TV dramas. This situation was reflected earlier in the week when AIC’s private documents were leaked and revealed the breakdown of the 1 million yen budget for each episode, revealing that key frame and layout artists only get paid 2,000 yen for each cut. (each cut usually has 10+ keyframes, so 200 keyframes means the animator gets 30,000~40,000 yen)
