Akutsu, a freelancer who bounces around Japan’s many animation studios, earns enough to eat and to rent a postage stamp of a studio apartment in a Tokyo suburb. These animators are known in Japanese as “genga-man,” the term for those who draw what are called key frames. Median annual earnings for key illustrators and other top-line talent increased to about $36,000 in 2019 from around $29,000 in 2015, according to statistics gathered by the Japan Animation Creators Association, a labor organization.
That’s happening to some extent at the business’s highest levels. Normally, surging demand would, at least in theory, spur competition for talent, driving up pay for existing workers and attracting new ones. The low wages and abysmal working conditions - hospitalization from overwork can be a badge of honor in Japan - have confounded the usual laws of the business world. “I know it’s impossible to get married and to raise a child.” But as he prepares to start a family, he feels intense financial pressure to leave. Akutsu, 29, said during a telephone interview.
“I want to work in the anime industry for the rest of my life,” Mr. Rather than rewarding them, the industry’s explosive growth has only widened the gap between the profits they help generate and their paltry wages, leaving many to wonder whether they can afford to continue following their passion. And he is one of the lucky ones: Thousands of lower-rung illustrators do grueling piecework for as little as $200 a month.
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