We Support Japanese Animators
We Support Japanese Animators
We support the Animator Dormitory Project! This non-profit organization's goal is to aid struggling animators within the anime industry via crowdfunding campaigns, which would provide animators with supportive housing and technical support. We strongly believe and support them!
The following information provided by the Animator Dormitory Project reveals the unfortunate reality for animators in the anime industry.
The average monthly salary for new animators in their 20s is $800.
Even though the Japanese anime industry has been producing more anime than ever, with its market size reaching more than ￥2,000,000,000,000 (= $18.8billion), the environment surrounding animators remains severe as low salaries, long working hours, and illegal contracting are still very common.
According to a 2015 survey conducted by JAnicA , the average monthly salary for an animator in their 20s is around ￥90,000(approx. $800), making the yearly salary about ￥1,100,000 (approx. $10,000).
Here is how the average salary breaks down by age:
Ages 20 – 24: 1,546,000 yen or $19,438
Ages 25 – 29: 2,457,000 yen or $30,893
Ages 30 – 34: 3,652,000 yen or $45,918
Ages 35 – 39: 5,111,000 yen or $64,263
Ages 40 – 44: 5,207,000 yen or $65,470
Ages 45–49: 5,298,000 yen or $66,614
The earnings are drastically low despite of the hard labor, overtime work, and long working hours, because in most cases, animators are hired and paid according to the piecework pay system.
This means that animators' incomes are determined by the amount of frames they draw. For a newcomer, it takes time and practice to become skillful enough to draw quicker and make a fair amount of earnings per month.
For a typical TV anime series, an animator makes less than $2 per ONE frame.
Therefore if an animator draws 300 frames per month, their monthly salary is only:
300 frames × ￥200(approx. $1.80) = ￥60,000(approx. $550)
Obviously, drawing 300 frames per month is a really challenging task for new animators. With such a busy schedule, animators generally do not have enough time to take other part time jobs, which makes it even harder to make a stable living.
Most anime studios are located in Tokyo.
This is another problem new animators encounter as they have to move to Tokyo and pay expensive housing rents from their very limited income.
Due to their extremely low income, many new animators have to quit their dream job of becoming an animator before they are even able to develop their skills.
90% of animators quit their job within 3 years of starting.
With many animators quitting their jobs, it also makes it really difficult for experienced animators to teach animation techniques to upcoming animators.
If there are less and less upcoming animators, it’s possible that anime will eventually disappear.
This Animator Dormitory Project has two major goals:
1) To provide housing so that up-and-coming animators can focus on their work without desperately trying to make the ends meet.
2) To offer a place where up-and-coming animators can receive technical support from experts.
The dormitory provides a room for under ￥30,000 per month including water, gas, electricity, air conditioning, and wi-fi so that animators can feel safe to take lessons on drawing and sketching.
In order to protect Japanese anime, we are lending a helping hand!
Since 2014, the organization welcomed a total of 40 new animator residents.
The dorm is built for animators who have been animators for less than three years since those first 3 years are the toughest for any animator.
The organization also connect them with experienced animators so that new animators can learn techniques from them, and introduce new jobs for beginners that have great benefits.