{"id":64466,"date":"2026-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64466"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:58:12","slug":"kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On March 31, Kadokawa\u00a0announced\u00a0the establishment of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creators.kadokawa.co.jp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Kadokawa Creators<\/strong><\/a>, a new studio dedicated to recruiting aspiring talents and fostering them to become creators in the professional anime\u00a0and live-action\u00a0industries.\u00a0The studio is part of the second phase of the company\u2019s \u201cCreating Creators. Creating Studios\u201d\u00a0initiative, which\u00a0aims to integrate training and production to\u00a0nurture\u00a0employees\u00a0who\u00a0are equipped to face\u00a0the\u00a0industries\u2019\u00a0challenges.\u00a0Full-scale operations\u00a0at\u00a0Kadokawa Creators\u00a0are\u00a0set to begin this April.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Kadokawa\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/group.kadokawa.co.jp\/information\/news_release\/2026033101.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">official news release<\/a>&nbsp;(which is based off a study by the Japan Research Institute), Japan\u2019s anime industry is currently suffering from low retention rates among young creators and a lack of training opportunities, leading to an attrition rate (the percentage at which employees leave a company and are not replaced) of 25% in four years and 68% in eight years.&nbsp;Since a good number of&nbsp;seasoned employees are busy with their own projects (thus making it&nbsp;difficult&nbsp;for younger employees to find tutelage and acquire the skills needed&nbsp;for them&nbsp;to flourish), Kadokawa aims to create a sustainable model that fosters in-house talents&nbsp;and maintains a stable production foundation&nbsp;by way of its employees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1103\" height=\"411\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1103px) 100vw, 1103px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-001.jpg 1103w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-001-380x142.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-001-768x286.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Kadokawa Creators&nbsp;is described&nbsp;as boasting&nbsp;three key features: an integrated training and production studio&nbsp;(meaning trainees learn&nbsp;through hands-on work&nbsp;on actual titles in production), a stable work environment&nbsp;(new talents are given full-time&nbsp;employment&nbsp;and stable salaries&nbsp;instead of contract work), and&nbsp;state-of-the-art&nbsp;facilities&nbsp;with&nbsp;unique educational programs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tsuyoshi Kikuchi,&nbsp;executive&nbsp;officer and&nbsp;chief&nbsp;studio&nbsp;officer&nbsp;of Kadokawa Corporation,&nbsp;touched on Kadokawa Creators\u2019 importance in the company\u2019s anime division and the importance of its production teams:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs&nbsp;Kadokawa\u2019s&nbsp;anime business continues to expand, strengthening the production teams, which arethe very foundation of our operations,&nbsp;is an urgent priority. The newly established&nbsp;Kadokawa&nbsp;Creators is not merely an expansion of our physical presence, but a strategic investment in the people who form the core of our new vision: \u2018Creating&nbsp;Creators.&nbsp;Creating Studios.\u2019 Starting from this foundation, we will build an ecosystem where talent circulates from the Group and affiliated educational institutions to the production front lines, thereby solidifying a sustainable, high-quality production structure.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-says-its-policies-are-not-influenced-by-the-actions-of-individual-shareholders-as-overseas-activist-investor-becomes-largest-shareholder-with-13-76-stake\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kadokawa says its policies are \u201cnot influenced by the actions of individual shareholders\u201d as overseas activist investor becomes largest shareholder with 13.76% stake<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-announces-huge-anime-production-center-consolidating-six-animation-studios-aiming-to-build-a-world-class-anime-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Kadokawa announces huge anime production center consolidating six animation studios, aiming to build a \u201cWorld-Class Anime City\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kadokawa Creators will give young talent full-time employment and the possibility to learn the craft hands-on alongise veterans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":64471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[73,17],"class_list":["post-64466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kadokawa Creators will give young talent full-time employment and the possibility to learn the craft hands-on alongise veterans.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kadokawa Creators will give young talent full-time employment and the possibility to learn the craft hands-on alongise veterans.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1018\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"534\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Kadokawa Creators will give young talent full-time employment and the possibility to learn the craft hands-on alongise veterans.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Kadokawa Creators will give young talent full-time employment and the possibility to learn the craft hands-on alongise veterans.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-03-31T15:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1018,"height":534,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-03-31T15:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/"},"wordCount":457,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-header.jpg","keywords":["Anime","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News","Non-Gaming News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/","name":"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-31T15:00:00+00:00","description":"Kadokawa Creators will give young talent full-time employment and the possibility to learn the craft hands-on alongise veterans.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260331-64466-header.jpg","width":1018,"height":534,"caption":"Kadokawa Creators"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-establishes-new-animation-studio-dedicated-to-nurturing-young-talent-into-professional-animators-amidst-workforce-shortage\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kadokawa\u00a0establishes\u00a0new animation studio dedicated to nurturing young talent into\u00a0professional\u00a0animators\u00a0amidst workforce shortage\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64466"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64472,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64466\/revisions\/64472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}