Insider talks about the inside story of Japan's voice actor industry: It is not the easy money-making profession as imagined

Last week, a large Japanese voice actor agency with 18 years of history suddenly announced that it would close at the end of March 2022 (reported by this site), which sparked heated discussions in society. Recently, a former agent of the agency was interviewed about the matter and revealed many inside stories of the Japanese voice actor industry that outsiders did not know. Let's learn about it together.

•Although Japan’s animation and gaming industries are extremely developed and require a large number of voice actors, the actual income of voice actors is not as much as outsiders imagine.

•Japanese voice actors have to work according to the hierarchy of the Actors Association. In the first three years, they can only earn a maximum of 15,000 yen per episode for dubbing, not including the agency’s commission. The latest TV animations have an average of 12 episodes per season, so even if they appear in all of them, the maximum they can earn is 180,000 yen.

•According to the author’s personal experience, voice actors with an annual income of 4 million can be considered great professional voice actors, while ordinary young voice actors generally earn between 2 million and 3 million, so voice actors with a little bit of conditions will choose to participate in commercial activities and do side jobs such as singing and acting to make a living.

•The hierarchy of the Japanese Actors Association is deeply rooted and is unlikely to be broken. Due to the epidemic, it has become very difficult to run a side business, and it is not uncommon for even old agencies to go bankrupt.