How to Join the Japanese Anime Industry as a Foreigner

This is a topic I haven't discussed in a while online because I was so busy running Tonari Animation and working as an animator that I hadn't been able to get my updated thoughts on this topic out. In the past I was a big advocate of the web-gen pathway because of my own experience in trying to get into the industry. I have a much more nuanced and seasoned perspective now, which could be valuable for people who are interested in joining the Japanese anime industry, either remotely from their home country, joining an overseas outsource company, or coming to Japan physically. to work in-house at the over 600+ studios around Japan (Primarily Tokyo).

In the past I've outlined two major routes to get into the industry. First of which is the Traditional Route, which is the pathway taken by animators notable examples such as Thomas Romain, Eunyoung Choi, Henry Thurlow, and LeSean Thomas. Second is the Web-gen route, which is the pathway of notable animators such as Bahi JD, Weilin Zhang, Vincent Chansard, and Vercreek who more recently in the last 7-9 years joined the industry. There is a continuation of the Web Gen pathway that I would also like to discuss which I haven't discussed before directly which is the Web-gen to in-house transition. I think it's the best way to approach joining the industry now and I hope to be able to outline it well in this post. Finally I will go over some exceptional routes that people can follow such as the path that I followed to enter the industry and a few others that I am aware of.

The Traditional Route:

This route is time tested and the people who have gone through the effort to take this path have found themselves largely accepted into the Japanese studio system and also very well integrated into Japan and Japanese culture. This route requires learning Japanese simultaneously as you are learning drawing. It also requires that you go to a 4-year university and get a degree ideally in an art related field. The final requirement is that you are young enough to be considered hire-able by Japanese companies. This means that you will need to be applying for studios around the ages of 22-25, otherwise you may be considered a NEET (Not Educated Employed or in Training), or a Freeter which can cause significant issues finding a company willing to hire you. If you have job experience in animation outside the Japanese industry you can avoid this problem though.

This is the best route if you actually have the resources, talent, and the foresight to take this path at such a young age. The main requirements for this would be that you have parents who will pay for your college (Being in student loan debt as an animator is a terrible idea) and you need to not only be talented and determined enough to learn to draw, but to also learn Japanese which is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn. Personally I think that this level of requirement is too high, and also requires a genius level mind (talent for drawing + language acquisition) or an extreme obsession with anime, drawing, and Japanese to accomplish. Of course you can make up for lack of talent or intellect with long hours of study and practice, but its something thats not available to everyone especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

If you are able to learn Japanese before starting college, a lower cost alternative to a University Degree would be attending Senmon Gakkou (Technical School) in Japan for anime production. These are shorter, more specialized degrees that will still pass for visa requirements when working as an animator in Japan. I know quite a few individuals who took this route.

In this route you'll be expected to start off doing Douga (Clean up and Inbetweens) for 1-3 years depending on your speed of progress.This is the case at the vast majority of studios in Japan. There are some newer studios though that are less traditional and may be able to start you off in Nigenga (clean up/tiedowns), or even Key Animation (Genga), but given that these studios are newer you may not have heard of them, so be prepared to do some deeper research to find them.

The Web-gen Route:

I think it's actually safe to say that this route is time tested since Web-gens inception in the 2000s in Japan and later abroad in the 2010s, but it doesn't have the integration factor of the Traditional Route. There doesn't seem to be any signs of the utility of web-gen animators to shrink, though lately there has been a seeming plateau of the amount of web-gen animators the system can handle at one time, so I'm afraid that the opportunity window is beginning to close for being the un-vetted online アニメーター(Animator).

If you're interested in this route because the traditional route is unavailable to you for any reason, the pathway is this: First learn to draw (The hardest part), then learn to animate, and then learn the Japanese anime pipeline and terminology used in the industry. There are a lot of resources and youtube channels online which talk about how to create Japanese anime and how to create the materials that are useful for Japanese anime productions. After you feel you are ready, you need to set up an X profile with a Japanese bio explaining that you are an animator and you're available for inquiries about work. You should also have some art and animations on your profile under the media tab in Japanese genga style.

Most of the new production coordinators (Seiskau Shinkou 制作進行) in Japan are typically recent high school or tech school graduates, who are tasked with seeking out animators and managing various production tasks. The most typical method they use to find freelancers is to browse X to find available people. Since they are new they often don't have the eye to properly vet the animators, so often times even lower skilled freelancers will get opportunities this way because the system hasn't yet accounted for this yet. Lately portfolio checks are becoming more common though by more senior staff, so this may be happening less and less over the next 5 years.

If you are DM'd or emailed by a production coordinator you will need to utilize machine translation either AI, Google, or DeepL to communicate. You need to learn basic Keigo 敬語 or polite speech, as well. Here is a link to a pretty decent guide to get you started. You should always check your machine translated Japanese to ensure the terminology is used correctly and the keigo is properly structured. It's especially important with the anime jargon, because the AI translators still aren't very good at understanding and communicating the industry terms.

This pathway will allow you to join the industry at any age and also allow you to begin your career while you're simultaneously learning Japanese. Which is great if you are talented with drawing, but not good at language acquisition and need more time.

The Web-gen to In-house Pathway

This is an emerging phenomenon and I think, the end-game of the web-gen route. Though some may agree with me and say that web-gen is the end game, but I digress. Due to the increasing prevalence and prominence of web-gen animators, they are no longer an anomaly but a part of the system now, we have begun to see web-gen animators moving to Japan and working in house. They are also landing kosoku (Fixed-fee) contracts even while working from abroad.

In order to make the transition from Web-gen to In-house requires some careful steps, but I believe it's very possible even if you don't speak Japanese. First you need to realize that as a freelance animators you should treat your work as if you are running your own small business. I think this is a good mindset shift to help you think properly about the people who are hiring you, not as random commissions, but as business clients and customers who come to you for services. As a small business operator you need to make sure that your customers are satisfied with not just the quality of your work, but your timeliness, communication and professionalism. If you think of your work this way and your clients as customers, you can consider what might make them become repeat customers.

If you are able to secure 3-4 repeat customers (Studios who use your services), then you're on track to becoming an in-house animator at one of those four studios. The reason I recommend 3-4 repeat customers is because we are still in the era where many studios are hesitant to get involved with sponsoring visas or moving foreigners to Japan to live, so you need to cast a bit of a wider net than you might think.

When you are working with these repeat customers, it's important to establish a good rapport and working relationship with them, so they are happy with your work, and the communication is smooth. If you are a foreigner without good Japanese skill, the studio side already has to do a lot of accommodation for you in order to work for you like organizing an interpreter or translating documents, or dealing with extra retakes from miscommunication. Its important that you recognize this and don't get too entitled even if you're a skilled animator because of this. Web-gen animators who don't speak Japanese basically need to make up for their lack of native Japanese communication with professionalism, which in my experience works very well.

One thing to also keep in mind is that you will likely be mainly working with and communicating with production coordinators (制作進行 / seisaku shinkō) who are new to the company. Production coodinators have an extremely high turnover rate because of the stress and working hours of the job. While it's good to make relationships with the production coordinators (制作進行 / seisaku shinkō). Try to elevate your communication to the Seisaku Desk, or the Producer who are more likely to stay at the company long term and have more power toward recommending people for fixed contract or visa sponsorship.

If it's hard to elevate your discussions with the production leadership, still have a good rapport with all of the seisaku shinkou you work with because for those who stay around they will get promoted and can bring you with them as they advance in their careers. The seisaku shinkou today are the producers and directors of the future, so keep that in mind.

As for visa sponsorship this is a difficult point. Most studios won't consider attempting sponsorship unless you have a 4-year degree. So you may have to come to Japan on a student visa and go to Japanese language school and/or tech school with a working exception so you can get the degree qualifications for your visa status while you are starting your in-house animation career.

The reason I think that this is the end game for web-gen as opposed to fully committing to remote work, is because at the end of the day we are all humans working together to make an art form we all love. Being able to see the faces and the other humans that you are working with in-person every day and being able to celebrate the monumental efforts over shared drinks at the end of the productions is really what makes this all worth it in the end. I think the web-gen who decide to go work in-house will see much greater gains in career and opportunities afforded to them because of how much others value physical presence here in Japan.

The Exceptional Routes

While most people who want to join the Japanese anime industry can follow the two routes I've already outlined, there are people like myself and some others who cannot get to Japan in any way that is established or communicated online.

I don't want to go into too much detail on these routes, but I will list them and allow people who are looking for other answers to go down these rabbit holes.

• My Route: TOSBEC, Start-up Visa, Intra Company Transfer Visa, and Business Manager Visa (If you own your own company or are willing to make one)
• Dependent Visa (If your spouse is already working in Japan)
• Spouse Visa (If you're married to a Japanese national or citizen)
• Artist Visa (If you are famous, or have verifiable artistic merit for subcategories)
• Permanent Residency Points System (If you live in Japan, graduated a notable university, are young, and are wealthy)
• Specified Skilled Worker/tokutei ginō（Emerging route)

Which route is best, really?

I know I said earlier that the best route is the traditional route, I think that this is largely true, but since it's unavailable to most people, the best route is quite literally just the one that is available to you. So I encourage everyone to find their own way into the industry and do your best.

I do want to advocate though that coming to Japan and living and working here is the best if you care about the long term health of the industry. If you are working remote from a poorer country for example, you could be inadvertently prolonging the low wages of people living here in Japan by making cheap labor too available for studios, so please keep that in mind. Its best if everyone in the industry regardless of domicile can help to keep pushing wages up so that anyone in the world can work on anime, and live a happy healthy life, raise a family, own a home, and save for retirement.

The anime industry is a place full of passionate people that have dedicated their lives to the mastery of this craft, and we shouldn't let that passion be exploited. We should all come together and try our best to put personal competitiveness and opportunism aside and do whats best for the future of the industry and the people here. I hope that as the anime industry evolves over the coming years that we can all work to make this an incredible industry where people can live good lives, make great films and celebrate together.

Edit: It is also possible to join the industry as a Seisaku Shinkou and I know quite a few foreigners joining this way, I will save that for a future post.