I recently had the opportunity to speak with Terumi Nishii, a seasoned character designer and animator whose credits include everything from Jujutsu Kaisen and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to Rurouni Kenshin and PENGUINDRUM. Nevertheless, we talked about the future of the Japanese anime business, how she’s contributing to its improvement, and its current situation rather than her work.
Lately, Nishii has been active in the Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association, or NAFCA. Established in 2023, the goal of NAFCA is to address the unfavorable labor circumstances that are common in the Japanese animation sector. The association is made up of professionals from all areas of the business, such as voice performers, producers, past executives, and animators and technicians. As Nishii states, “They would like to have as many people as possible participate, including people from other countries, in order to first investigate the problems as a whole and then propose solutions to the government.”
Although Nishii is not a member of NAFCA, she has been collaborating with them lately to develop an industry survey that would gauge the severity of issues animators are dealing with. “We’re asking about what kinds of other situations both those who work at animation studios and outside of them are facing with this survey—like, we don’t fully know the stories of these freelancers and full-time workers,” Nishii said. “It’s well known that newbie animators have trouble putting food on the table.” With any luck, the administration will be better able to comprehend the actual extent of the problem thanks to the hard data this poll has yielded.
Currently, NAFCA is working on a significant project called the “Animator Skill Test.” Because of the current labor scarcity in the anime business, less skilled animators are joining the job. Due to the need for more experienced animators to rework novices’ work in addition to their own, this has resulted in a bit of a mess. “The particular abilities required to work as an actor are meant to be taught at vocational schools, but they only cover the broad strokes of anime production. Consider pupils who, for whatever reason, have not been able to learn the skills necessary to become animators. A graduate’s ability to work as a professional animator is not guaranteed. They ought to have received more specialized education. Nishii expects that by requiring a standardized test, these institutions will have to enhance their curricula in order for their kids to pass it.
Of course, underqualification is just the beginning of the issues that currently plague employees in the anime sector. Regarding the worst businesses in the sector, Nishii stated, “In general, overtime hours are extremely long, or there are strange quotas that you can never hit—and, therefore, you never get to go home.” “For the past 20 or 30 years, those who work for Japanese corporations have been required to put in a lot of overtime; yet, it appears that this has resulted in them more closely resembling “slaves” than “full-time employees.”
Even worse, she believes that the issue is pervasive rather than intentional: “It has grown to the point where people are perpetuating it out of a sense of duty rather than with malice.” Only in the past five years have people begun to voice concerns about the industry’s structure, which expects more senior colleagues to look out for you if you’re struggling financially. Individuals at these companies appear to be at last realizing that the public finds this situation peculiar, and they are now attempting to come up with a solution. It seems to me that they are currently looking for methods to change the structure of how they have traditionally produced anime without sacrificing quality.
It should come as no surprise that Nishii is a major proponent of unions given all the problems the anime industry faces. “I believe that not having one puts you at a disadvantage,” she continued. You can’t win without negotiating as a group, after all. Furthermore, even in the unlikely event that one person is successful in obtaining [a raise or other compensation], this does not imply that everyone will have the same level of success. One-on-one negotiations are acceptable in the eyes of some, but I believe they can be difficult for novices or persons with reserved dispositions. […] I believe that collective negotiation is the only practical course of action when considering those individuals. Regretfully, unions are uncommon in Japan, particularly within the anime sector. Although there is an internal union for employees at some studios, such as Toei, there isn’t one for independent contractors, even though they are currently quite common in the business. Nishii is hoping that things will soon change.
Niishi has some predictions on the future of anime in Japan based on all of this. “Given the current situation, I anticipate an increase in budgets,” Nishii said. However, the quality of the labor isn’t always reflected in the money collected. The number of amateur animators is growing quickly, as I previously stated, and regardless of the amount of money you provide them, they will always remain amateur animators.
The Animator Skill Test was developed because, according to Nishii, “we are getting to the point where no matter how much money you have for people who are good at the job, you won’t be able to find them—and once that happens, the number of skilled people won’t increase unless you develop them.” If we don’t, other nations will most likely catch up to us shortly. In such scenario, I believe the original authors would likely believe that anime versions of their works don’t require production in Japan.
In the upcoming months, NAFCA will be holding a Kickstarter campaign if you would like to help them achieve their objective of bettering working conditions in the anime business. As further details become available, they will be provided here.
In the upcoming months, NAFCA will be holding a Kickstarter campaign if you would like to help them achieve their objective of bettering working conditions in the anime business. As further details become available, they will be provided here.
