CATDOLL: It's not easy to be an idol voice actor! Industry insiders reveal the level of competition

The fierce competition in the Japanese voice actor industry is a common topic. Although it looks glamorous on the surface, only the voice actors themselves know the hard work behind it. At the 9th Voice Actor Awards ceremony, the 82-year-old voice actor Hiroshi Otake, the winner of the Merit Award, once again revealed the fierceness of the competition in the voice actor industry.

In his acceptance speech, Hiroshi Ohtake said: "A long time ago, when I mentioned the word voice actor, many people's first reaction was Seiyu (pronounced similar to voice actor in Japanese), but now the word voice actor has become a profession that young people aspire to. According to my observations in the teaching activities of the voice actor training school, only one in 100 students can become a professional voice actor." In other words, just becoming a professional voice actor requires one in a hundred. An editor of an animation magazine who was present said: "Mr. Ohtake's one in a hundred is just the threshold to become a professional voice actor. To survive as a voice actor requires one in a thousand. The competition in this industry is really too fierce." The most tragic in the voice actor industry as a whole are the core voice actors. Although they have been working hard in the voice actor industry for many years and have stable income and work, they have to face the challenge of new voice actors all the time. If new voice actors are used in large numbers, it means that the good days of the core voice actors are over.