CATDOLL: Japan's animation industry is still in crisis, with the turnover rate of new animators exceeding 90%

The Japanese animation industry has been facing many problems in the past two years, and deep-seated problems have begun to emerge. Although the Japanese animation market seems to have regained its vitality with the popularity of "Your Name." in 2016, it also brought fire to the animation film market. However, under this seemingly prosperous appearance, there are also many crises. In the autumn of 2016, many animations were suspended or postponed, which caused many fans to worry. Recently, Japanese media reported in depth on the crisis status of the Japanese industry. Yamazaki, who has served as an animation director and also served as a director of the Animation Production and Performance Association, pointed out: "The talent training and employment form of the Japanese animation industry is still not guaranteed. This structure has great problems and has also led to the emergence of various problems." Faced with this situation, many industry insiders pointed out that the Chinese market is the direction of future development.

90% of animation artists quit their jobs, animation production sites are aging

The primary problem of the Japanese animation industry is the high turnover rate. There are many young people in Japan who aspire to become animation artists because they like drawing or animation. However, more than half of these young people will quickly give up their dreams and leave the animation industry.

Yamazaki said: "In terms of the current situation, only one out of 10 people who enter the animation industry can stay. Because young animators have resigned one after another, the ones who stay are showing an aging trend. People in my age group are the most, about 45 to 50 years old. We decided to become animators after watching "Space Battleship Yamato" and "Mobile Suit Gundam". In another 10 years, my generation will be 60 years old, and the future of animation production will face even more severe tests."

Many new animation artists earn less than 1 million yen a year

One of the main reasons for the high turnover rate in the Japanese animation industry is that the salary in the animation industry is too low. Yamazaki revealed: "Although the income is related to one's ability, the annual income of many new animation artists is less than 1 million yen (about 60,000 yuan)." Yamazaki also said: The salary is mainly based on the system of more work, more pay, which will vary greatly depending on the speed and method of individual work. Many people end up with a salary that is not enough to support their lives. In addition, the working hours for animation production may even exceed 10 hours a day, so there is no extra time to do side jobs.

On the other hand, there are also animation artists with strong strength and negotiation ability who can earn an annual income of 5 to 6 million (about RMB 300,000 to 360,000) in their 20s, but they have to endure low income and long working hours for a long time, which is one of the reasons why poor animation artists are desperate. Many people endured desperately in the first three years, but eventually resigned because they could not bear the harsh environment of the industry.

The talent cultivation and employment patterns of the Japanese animation industry are still not guaranteed

The animation industry requires strength, drive, and the ability to negotiate, but companies in the industry do not train new producers in terms of technology and negotiation skills, and directly push them to the animation production site, leaving new producers without the overwhelming ability to be active as freelancers. Even if there are animation companies that work hard to cultivate talents, there are many cases where these cultivated talents are eventually poached by large animation companies with sufficient funds. The trend of well-cultivated talents being poached by large companies at will has also made many companies not want to cultivate excellent talents themselves.

Many animation production companies do not employ regular employees, but use temporary workers and short-term employees to employ producers. They cannot get guidance from their superiors, and they are temporary workers, so their work efficiency is not high. In the end, large companies gather a group of producers with strong skills and strength, while small companies gather a group of producers with little experience and insufficient ability. This leads to low overall production efficiency and low profit margins in the industry, and finally falls into a vicious cycle of low wages for young animation producers who are informal employees.

The unique subcontracting structure of the animation industry is also a problem. In the animation industry, a new producer has to start with intermediate frame animation, and only when he has accumulated enough experience and technical strength can he do the original painting. Sometimes, more than 100 producers may gather on the scene of an animation production. This large number of people and time consumption make the animation production very expensive. Usually, the production cost of a 30-minute TV animation is 10 million to 25 million yen, and the production cost of a 13-episode animation is about 200 million yen. If the animation company pays for this money, if the animation cannot be sold, these costs will become a huge debt, and in order to share the risk, advertising companies and sponsors must be introduced.

In order to ensure that the works can be broadcast smoothly, the production of animations actually has to be distributed to many small and medium-sized companies. The commissions of these small and medium-sized companies are drawn from the production costs. The profits of the small and medium-sized companies that contract these jobs are not much. The production structure of the animation production industry is the same as that of the construction industry and the talent dispatch industry. This structure means that even if an animation is very popular, the grassroots producers cannot get any benefits. It is very rare for a box office hit like "Your Name." to share the profits earned by grassroots producers. Recently, not only the newcomers, but also the entire industry's income has been decreasing.