Japan’s anime industry looks to AI to solve labor crunch

New services can automate backgrounds, coloring, and other time-consuming work.

With generative artificial intelligence poised to trigger seismic shifts across society, Japan’s animation industry is opening up to its potential to stem critical labor shortages, even as concerns about protecting creators abound.

Nagoya-based K&K Design introduced generative AI into its workflow last year to help with background art and coloring. “Background art that usually takes a week can now be done in five minutes,” the company said.

“We decided that we needed to work with AI in order to improve the working environment while maintaining the quality of production,” said the company’s director, Hiroshi Kawakami.

The growth of internet anime streaming is demanding high standards in both production speed and quality. An industry labor shortage is providing another tailwind for the introduction of generative AI.

The market for Japan’s anime industry—including overseas demand—stood at JPY 2.9 trillion (USD 19.7 billion) in 2022, up 7% from the previous year, according to the Association of Japanese Animations industry group.

The expanding market is being held up in part by low wages and long working hours.

In a survey of anime industry workers by the Nippon Anime & Film Cultural Association (NAFCA), 38% of respondents said that their monthly income from anime-related work is less than JPY 200,000 (USD 1,358). The average monthly work time is 219 hours, 1.3 times that of Japan’s general workforce.

Entrusting some work to AI may enable humans to focus on planning and character design. Higher productivity could lead to improved conditions, while increasing the variety of works would potentially boost overseas exports.

AI can also handle translation, a critical pillar for overseas business. AI startup Orange has developed technology that increases the speed of manga translation up to ten times the current rate and has received venture capital investment from a fund affiliated with Japan Investment Corporation.

“This is a project that will lead to strengthening Japan’s industrial competitiveness,” an executive from the fund said of the investment.

Of the approximately 700,000 manga works estimated to exist in Japan, only 14,000 have been translated into English. Orange is considering expanding into Spanish-speaking countries and India, where there are many readers.

Webtoon production company En-dolphin is developing a generative AI service that can reproduce illustrations by learning from manga artists’ past works. By providing a script or a rough sketch, the system can generate a work with the same style and composition as one by the original artist.

The government is also encouraging the use of AI in the content industry. In July, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) published guidelines for animation and game companies that gave examples of AI implementation.

“Generative AI can contribute to creativity in many aspects of content production,” the guidelines said. In the future, the government will also consider providing subsidies and other support to companies that utilize AI, hoping the technology can help solve the industry’s labor issues.

But the rapid development of AI comes with risks. There are concerns that Japanese works will be incorporated into AI models overseas without permission, leading to widespread imitation.

A call for laws to protect creators, organized by a group of Japanese illustrators last year, has collected more than 10,000 signatures.

Source：Nikkei Asia