Well today I’m gonna talk about working as an animator in Japan.
It’s quite heart-aching but I really hope to share these information with you guys.
Recently P.A WORKS (The animation studio who made Shirobako or Angel Beats or Charlotte) posted about the conditions to become an animator, I’ll pick some important point:
- For the first two months, the company will provide you some studies so that you knew how company works with their animation
- And from that onward, for the first year, you must draw 350 pieces of storyboard per month persistently. From second year onward, you must increase to 500 pieces per month.
If you couldn’t handle that, you are advised to leave your job.
So let’s just do a simple calculation on how much a new animator can earn.
We assume that a new animator works for 24 days per month and 12 hours per day, without MC or any leaves.
If he/she is required to draw 350 pieces, he/she will need to draw 15 pieces per day, meaning he/she will have to finish a piece in 50 minutes.
If he/she is required to draw 500 pieces, he/she will need to draw 21 pieces per day, meaning he/she will have to finish a piece in 30 minutes.
Japanese animator are payed according to the total number of storyboard they drew, and they earned
220~240 yen per piece, let’s go with 300 yen to simplify the calculation
350 pieces per month= 105k yen per month (approximately 980 usd)
500 pieces per month=150k yen per month
(approximately 1400 usd)
For a fresh graduate in Japan, their basic salary is at least 200k yen per month, but for a new animator, they can only earn approximately 120k per month.
And you guys know how expensive is to live in Japan.
I just want to let you guys know how overwork and underpaid is as an animator in Japan. Let’s just give all those hardworking animators an applause for creating so many fabulous animation.
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