New Anime Report Says Only Bold Fixes Allow the Industry to Keep Thriving

There is no denying the growth anime has experienced in the past decade. Years ago, the industry had a small pocket of fans outside of Japan, but that is all different nowadays. Thanks to tech and streaming, anime is a mainstream medium across the globe, and 2023 was big for the industry. Now, a new report detailing the industry’s affairs is live, and the Japan Research Institute believes the nation’s government needs to get involved with the anime industry.

The update comes from Japan directly as a report called The Current Situation and Issues of Our Country’s Animation Industry was posted. The report comes from a purely economic standpoint as The Japan Research Institute is focus on financial forecasting. The detailed report breaks down the turnover rate of workers in the anime industry, and it questions how legal the industry’s use of subcontracted studios. However, the most eye-opening info comes courtesy of the industry’s profit.

According to the report, anime studios rake in 6% of a project’s total earnings overseas and 16% of domestic sales. These are averages, and given how low they are, you can see why anime studios often talk about financial hardships. If anime studios are not profiting greatly from their own projects, you can hardly expect animators to get paid well, and this is why the industry has a high turnover.

Of course, the point of this report by The Japan Research Institute is to groupthink a solution for the industry’s woes. If the medium wants to continue without busting, the report says the Japanese anime industry should adopt labor unions as seen in certain trades stateside. This adoption when paired with an insurance reform and minimum wage boost would help mitigate turnover. For these three things to happen, studios would need to earn more from their own projects, so the report says these companies deserve at least 30% of IP ownership regardless of the production committee’s size.

As you can imagine, these bold suggestions would require government intervention. Things like insurance reform and minimum wage expansion are complicated matters. Still, the Japan Research Institute is confident these issues are key in keeping the anime industry healthy. So unless execs want the medium to peak fast and die young, they will have a serious chat about this report’s dire findings.

What do you think about this latest anime breakdown? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!

HT – Full Frontal Moe