How Much Do Japanese Animators Make?

How much do animators in different countries make? Here’s some information from Japan. An employee at studio Xebec shared an official looking paycheck for a three-month contract. It appears that the studio offered him the monthly pay of 131,330 yen ($1,103). The stipulations for his contact featured the base pay of 130,000 yen ($1,092) and an additional 5,300 yen ($44.50) to cover travel costs, with 3,970 yen ($33) withheld for taxes.

The funny thing is that the actual working hours were described as “as much as you can in 24 hours.” The employee also had to turn in a timecard filled out by hand at the end of each month.

The situation seems to be common for the anime industry according to some public job listings. Animation studio ARMS, for example offered an entry-level position for a production assistant with a pay of 145,000 yen ($1,150) a month. The job implied an 8.5-hour work day for six days a week with possible overtime.

A study by the Japan Animation Creators Association (759 animators interviewed) states that animators earned an average of 3.3283 million yen (about US$27,689) in Japan in 2013.