{"id":70075,"date":"2026-07-25T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=70075"},"modified":"2026-07-24T19:07:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:07:48","slug":"ive-seen-many-colleagues-die-in-their-50s-black-lagoon-director-sunao-katabuchi-reflects-on-anime-industry-working-conditions-as-japan-gets-new-dedicated-insurance-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ive-seen-many-colleagues-die-in-their-50s-black-lagoon-director-sunao-katabuchi-reflects-on-anime-industry-working-conditions-as-japan-gets-new-dedicated-insurance-program\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen many colleagues die in their 50s&#8221;\u00a0Black Lagoon\u00a0director\u00a0Sunao Katabuchi reflects on anime industry working conditions as Japan gets new dedicated insurance program\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new labor insurance program dedicated specifically to people working in anime production in Japan was recently launched, aiming to provide freelancers with protection against workplace injuries&nbsp;and&nbsp;illness while improving health standards&nbsp;across the&nbsp;notoriously&nbsp;grueling anime industry.&nbsp;During a press conference held on July 22 at Japan&#8217;s Ministry of Health,&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;and Welfare, veteran&nbsp;anime director&nbsp;Sunao Katabuchi&nbsp;talked about&nbsp;the significance of this project and the&nbsp;risks&nbsp;anime production staff is faced&nbsp;with&nbsp;(source:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/natalie.mu\/eiga\/news\/681994\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eiga Natalie<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new insurance program, established by domestic freelancer association&nbsp;&#8220;Arts Workers Japan,&#8221;&nbsp;is intended to offer a &#8220;safety net&#8221;&nbsp;for&nbsp;freelance animators, directors, and other production staff who are not&nbsp;formally&nbsp;employed by a company&nbsp;by&nbsp;providing compensation from any ailments sustained while working.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Katabuchi, who has over 45 years of experience in the industry, commented, &#8220;I&#8217;ve seen many senior colleagues die in their 50s. While not necessarily a result of direct workplace accidents, I believe the work certainly&nbsp;created&nbsp;an accumulation of both physical&nbsp;and mental fatigue.&#8221; While noting that working conditions in the anime industry have&nbsp;improved at&nbsp;production companies,&nbsp;Katabuchi&nbsp;says&nbsp;the&nbsp;increasing number&nbsp;of freelancers&nbsp;in the sector&nbsp;has created a blind spot when it comes to workers&#8217; health.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1472\" height=\"790\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1472px) 100vw, 1472px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260724-70075-001-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-70082\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260724-70075-001-1.jpg 1472w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260724-70075-001-1-380x204.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260724-70075-001-1-768x412.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In this Corner of The World<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He&nbsp;also&nbsp;suggests that this is an important matter when it comes to preserving the future sustainability of anime.&nbsp;Given that veterans in their 50s and 60s make up the core of the current workforce, their eventual retirements will be followed by a further rise in freelancers, thus the need to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;such workers&nbsp;with the same improvements and&nbsp;sense of security&nbsp;enjoyed by salaried&nbsp;employees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about the potential of AI in relieving the burden&nbsp;carried by anime staff,&nbsp;Katabuchi&nbsp;said it would be ideal if AI could somehow&nbsp;contribute, but&nbsp;expressed the fear that&nbsp;its use could&nbsp;create the false belief that sophisticated&nbsp;content can be produced with minimal effort, thus causing production budgets to plummet.&nbsp;&#8220;We must continue to create works that demonstrate the enduring value of hand-drawn animation,&#8221; he says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-government-faces-backlash-over-ai-generated-flyers-meant-to-promote-fair-transactions-with-anime-creators\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Japanese government faces backlash over AI-generated flyers meant to promote fair\u00a0transactions with anime creators\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/anime-creators-received-0-0-of-japanese-governments-entertainment-industry-subsidies-in-2024-official-documents-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Anime creators received \u201c0.0%\u201d of Japanese government\u2019s entertainment industry subsidies\u00a0in 2024, official documents show\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunao Katabuchi recently gave his thoughts on the health of anime production staff and whether AI could help relieve the burden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":70079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-07-24T16:00:06+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mrfpvpufcn2w","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mrfpvpufcn2w\",\"cid\":\"bafyreib5f3abmrfeoxcttodd5stefsoruqnqb3ftqrbznkia67rp6ldbmq\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreifs43wlploq3g73kiswpfm3uaz5ajh6k25ahtklhg75j4mcrv2teq\",\"rev\":\"3mrfpvpuj7n2w\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[73,17],"class_list":["post-70075","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 v28.0 - 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