“I was playing heroines, but in real life I wasn’t earning a living,” said Shibata, now 60. These days, she also works as a home organizer, helping people de-clutter. “Voice acting as a profession just doesn’t pay,” she said.

Even in a country where a culture of overwork permeates a wide range of businesses, the anime industry is notorious for the grueling hours that workers put in. Animators in their early 20s earn less than 2 million yen ($12,948) a year, according to industry data, compared with over 3 million yen for a person of a similar age living in Tokyo. That’s less than half of what US entry-level animators earn, websites like Glassdoor show. Creative workers also complain of late and uncertain payments.

Some, though, sense change is afoot. A working group for the United Nations Human Rights Council last year called out Japan’s anime industry for its poor treatment of workers, along with cases of sexual violence and harassment in the country’s entertainment business. In a May report, the group referred to “excessively long working hours” and low pay, as well as a disregard for creative workers’ intellectual property rights.

Acknowledging such worries, lawmakers passed a new law that took effect in November to boost protections for freelance workers. Late last month, regulatory officials at Japan’s Fair Trade Commission launched a study on labor practices within the anime industry and invited workers to submit complaints.

Once considered a geeky, so-called otaku obsession, anime is now considered mainstream. In 2020, when the pandemic brought Hollywood production to a halt, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train topped global box office sales at over $470 million. In Japan, around 400 anime titles are now produced for TV and theaters every year, attracting dedicated fans who go on to buy related merchandise. The genre’s popularity among global streaming audiences has also prompted a flurry of acquisitions. Sony, which bought anime streaming service Crunchyroll in 2021, became the largest shareholder of anime publisher Kadokawa Corp. in an alliance announced late last year. Movie producing and distributing company Toho Co. bought US-based anime distributor Gkids Inc. for an undisclosed amount to strengthen the Japanese firm’s US reach.

That later evolved into the current system in which studios work within budgets set by powerful committees of publishers, toymakers and businesses which finance the series and share royalties. Production companies outsource work to small anime studios and voice actors’ agencies, which in turn hire even smaller companies and freelancers. This helps companies work on multiple series at once and mitigate any potential losses. As a result, revenue is spread thinly, and it can take months for compensation to filter through to illustrators and voice actors.

Actors often wait six months or longer to get paid, according to Nobunari Neyoshi, who until last year ran a voice actor agency alongside his sound-production business for a decade. “Violations of subcontracting laws are rampant,” said 47-year-old Neyoshi, adding that sometimes actors don’t get paid at all. He closed his voice-acting business due to poor sales.

Workers are also often employed over the phone or via messaging apps without formal contracts, leaving it unclear how much, or even whether, they’ll get paid. “It’s common across the industry to be asked to start working on something even before any paperwork is done,” said Aina Sugisawa, a 24-year-old trainee at Tokyo-based studio TMS Entertainment Co., part of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. and known for hit series like Detective Conan.

Unlike in Hollywood where a strike by screenwriters and performers brought movie and TV production to a halt in 2023, the majority of Japanese voice actors and illustrators don’t belong to labor unions. Numako, the former union official, says he’s always struggled to convince colleagues to join him.

The new law on freelancers forces companies to provide written contracts, including details on pay, to all workers. Businesses are now prohibited from demanding extra work without promising additional pay and are also required to pay workers within 60 days. The government is stepping up surveillance, and regulators are also inviting workers to blow the whistle on law-breaking activity.

One underlying problem, industry insiders say, has been the sheer number of people willing to endure poor conditions just to be involved in an art form they’ve loved since childhood. Breaking into the industry is still highly competitive; manga and anime illustrators regularly rank among the top dream professions of school children. Some blame themselves for their lack of financial success: there’s always a more senior job to aspire to. Key frame animators are responsible for drawing crucial images at the start and end of major scenes and earn more than those drawing sequences in between. With skills and experience, they can also move on to better-paid jobs including directors. But such senior roles are few. The field of voice acting can be even more competitive.

Shrinking demographics and technological innovation including AI are also seen bringing change — as well as an existential challenge. Japan Research Institute expects a labor shortage among anime illustrators, estimating their number to decline to roughly 5,600 by 2030 from around 6,200 in 2019. Production studios have already been turning to overseas labor, with Toei Animation sending 70% of its animation work to a branch in the Philippines, even though crucial processes remain in Japan. Many fear that AI will replace jobs, particularly at the entry level, turning away younger artists.

Real change, though, will require workers to act rather than expecting laws to protect them automatically, said Yasunari Yamada, a lawyer with expertise in freelance work. “Freelancers need to recognize that they’re business operators, and take action if they think something’s wrong,” he said.

Some are starting to speak up. Shibata, the voice actor, recently learned that a video game using her voice was reissued a few years ago without paying her royalties. After decades of work under her belt, including key roles in popular series like Saint Seiya, a story about mystical warriors, she complained, prompting the publisher to agree to a payment.

“People have just been clinging to whatever job they get, because if you say something negative you’re put out to pasture,” she said. “Everyone’s been putting up with it.”

FYI:

This was posted by a new account, around 9 mins old.

This is the first post they made. No comments, yet.

“I’m Gonna Miss Her” is a single released by Brad Paisley as the second single off of his album Part II. The song reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country songs chart.

The song describes a man who goes fishing a lot. He is confronted by his wife at home after one of the fishing trips where she tells him that he has to choose between her or the fishing. The song then describes how Brad is “gonna miss her”, the listener can then figure out that Brad choose fishing over his wife.

According to a 2004 issue of Country Weekly magazine, Brad said he co-wrote the song with Frank Rogers in high school during a talent contest where he decided to write a comedy song instead of the ballads he was writing prior.^[1]

Thanks for the information about Operation Bloodstone!

Advocacy group America’s Voice believes that U.S. rural and agricultural regions will likely be the hardest hit by Trump’s immigration policies, which threaten mass detention and deportation of millions.

Border Patrol agents in unmarked vehicles have allegedly been carrying out racially profiled raids in California’s agricultural center after stalking immigrants outside stores, CalMatters reports.

Estimates suggest that between 400,000-800,000 people are farmworkers in California, which is responsible for about 13% percent of the country’s agricultural production value that is worth more than $25 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA estimated that between 2020-2022 about 32% of crop farmworkers were U.S. born, 7% were immigrants who had obtained citizenship, 19% were authorized immigrants, mostly permanent residents or green-card holders and the remaining 42% were unauthorized to work. The majority of these workers have Latino backgrounds.

The AV report noted how anti-immigrant crackdowns in the past decade have led to devastating impacts for farms, such as crop rot, across several states, including Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

"The unmarked cars, the racial profiling, abusive harassment, and wide dragnets are likely just the tip of the spear of the incoming administration and the signs are unmistakable: there are ‘enemy invaders’ within threatening everything ‘real Americans’ hold dear, and the federal government will be interested in critical oversight in how local officials deal with the ‘enemy.’

It warns, "The tone and culture they set will be just as important as the policies they begin to implement. As individual law enforcement and vigilantes feel empowered to take drastic action with little concern for consequences or oversight, our situation could get out of hand quickly and mass family separations will likely begin again. And, as we saw, the impacts will be felt by families, communities, businesses – and, frankly, all of us.

Thanks for the song!

TIL

To make this song even more spot on, Lehrer used eight bars from the well-known German national anthem “Das Lied der Deutschen” as a song intro :-)

For those interested in learning about Operation Paperclip:

Although he officially sanctioned the operation, President Harry Truman forbade the agency from recruiting any Nazi members or active Nazi supporters. Nevertheless, officials within the JIOA and Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner to the CIA—bypassed this directive by eliminating or whitewashing incriminating evidence of possible war crimes from the scientists’ records, believing their intelligence to be crucial to the country’s postwar efforts.

Although defenders of the clandestine operation argue that the balance of power could have easily shifted to the Soviet Union during the Cold War if these Nazi scientists were not brought to the United States, opponents point to the ethical cost of ignoring their abhorrent war crimes without punishment or accountability.^[1]

I just posted a video of Annie Jacobsen talking about Nuclear War, she also wrote a book about Operation Paperclip.^[2]

In the days and weeks after Germany’s surrender, American troops combed the European countryside in search of hidden caches of weaponry to collect. They came across facets of the Nazi war machine that the top brass were shocked to see, writer Annie Jacobsen told NPR’s All Things Considered in 2014. Jacobson wrote about both the mission and the scientists in her book, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists To America.

“One example was they had no idea that Hitler had created this whole arsenal of nerve agents,” Jacobsen says. “They had no idea that Hitler was working on a bubonic plague weapon. That is really where Paperclip began, which was suddenly the Pentagon realizing, ‘Wait a minute, we need these weapons for ourselves.’"^[3]

True, thanks for clarifying!

login anonymously

What does this mean?

Is it similar to Chrome’s “Incognito” mode?

Damn, Aurora is linked to google and you need to login to get apks, unlike F-Droid.

Aurora Store enables you to search and download apps from the official Google Play store. You can check app descriptions, screenshots, updates, reviews, and download the APK directly from Google Play to your device. To use Aurora Store, you need to have a Google Play account, and log in to your Google Play account when you first open and configure Aurora Store.

(Alternatively Aurora Store also allow you to login anonymously)

Unlike a traditional app store, Aurora Store does not own, license or distribute any apps. All the apps, app descriptions, screenshots and other content in Aurora Store are directly accessed, downloaded and/or displayed from Google Play.

Aurora Store works exactly like a door or a browser, allowing you to log in to your Google Play account and find the apps from Google Play.

Please note that Aurora Store does not have any approval, sponsorship or authorization from Google, Google Play, any apps downloaded through Aurora Store or any app developers; neither does Aurora Store have any affiliation, cooperation or connection with them.

F-Droid is cool, but limited with apks.

https://f-droid.org/

F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.

Yes, this is just another policy that hinders the working class, the duopoly does like their police state.

Anyone have any thoughts on APKPure as an alternative?

Share the meme with us!

Wow, awesome!

If interested, you should look into the billionaires that own a good amount of California water, and the politicians that help them.

Videos:

More Perfect Union, 08:08: https://lemmy.world/post/24266937

Sabby Sabs, 33:29: https://lemmy.world/post/24258142

Briahna Joy Gray, 30:26: https://lemmy.world/post/24260706

TIL

YOU CAN’T CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS! is a catchphrase originating from the video game Sim City 2000, where it is shouted towards the player (the mayor) by the transportation advisor if he attempts to cut transit funding.

While it isn’t the character’s name, he is sometimes referred to as “Norm” due to his similar appearance to Norm Abram of This Old House.[9]^[1]

This Old House, The New Yankee Workshop, and Ask This Old House are great shows to learn DIY skills!

For those interested in Norm:

On May 19, 2022, it was announced that after 43 years, Abram would retire from the show. A one hour special titled The House that Norm Built aired online and on PBS stations on October 3, 2022, surveying his career with the program.[11][12]

In 1988, Morash planned to launch a spinoff of This Old House called The New Yankee Workshop, featuring Abram. They needed a convenient place to videotape, and used the shop in the small building that Abram built in 1979 in Morash’s backyard.[10] The shop’s layout and equipment were expanded and adapted to match Abram’s preferences, in a space measuring 36 by 26 feet (11.0 by 7.9 m).[13][14] The New Yankee Workshop was first aired in 1989 with Abram as the host.[4] The program showcased furniture or other projects and emphasized classic, elegant designs, made using a combination of simple handtools and newer power tools and equipment.[4] The show aired for 21 seasons on PBS, then was suspended indefinitely as Abram decided to focus on other projects.[10][15][16]

He has also contributed to efforts to train younger students in the building trades, such as the Generation NEXT apprenticeship program.[10]

More recently, he bought a new old house in Rhode Island near the coast, where he plans to build a new woodworking shop, and he is also interested in learning shipbuilding.[16][23]^[2]

He is still going strong, yt video 3 days ago:

Website: https://www.newyankee.com/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@newyankeeworkshop

Edit: fixed last quote, and fixed second citation format

Interesting; most of the ones I have seen are portraying Mangione as Luigi from Nintendo.

My attempt using deepai:

Oh, you reminded me to check out Yanis Varoufakis’s latest videos!

He talks of imperialism and the differences between China and the USA.

Thanks for the meme!

For those interested: https://lemmy.world/post/23027760

“I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done,” the Ivy League graduate reportedly wrote in a manifesto admitting to killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. “These parasites had it coming.”

Luigi Mangione—the 26-year-old man arrested in Pennsylvania Monday on gun charges and suspected of last week’s assassination of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson—was carrying a manifesto condemning insurance industry greed, police said after his apprehension.

New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was in possession of a 9mm handgun—possibly a ghost gun made with numerous parts or a 3D printer—the type used to kill Thompson, as well as a silencer and what he described as an anti-corporate manifesto.

Three bullet casings were inscribed with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose”—a phrase commonly used by critics to describe insurance industry tactics to avoid paying patient claims. UnitedHealth, the nation’s biggest private insurer, is notorious for denying more claims than any other insurance company.

Mangione’s social media posts run the gamut from praising the opinions of right-wing figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson to leaving positive reviews on Goodreads for books including Dr. Seuss’ cautionary environmental tale The Lorax and the manifesto of Theodore Kaczynski—better known as the Unabomber.

“He had the balls to recognize that peaceful protest has gotten us absolutely nowhere and at the end of the day, he’s probably right,” Mangione controversially opined of Kaczynski, whom he called “an extreme political revolutionary.”

“When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive,” he asserted.

“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter,” the FBI said on Thursday.

FBI Link: https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-offensive-and-racist-text-messages

Brian Hughes, of the Trump campaign, told NBC that they would take legal action “if we can find the origin of these messages which promote this kind of ugliness in our name.

“President Trump built a diverse and broad coalition of support, with voters of all races and backgrounds,” he said in a statement to NBC. “The result was a landslide victory for his commonsense mandate for change. This will result in a second term that is beneficial to every working man and woman in our nation.”

You are welcome!

Edit: not sure about sync

Communities on Lemmy World: https://lemmy.world/communities

Edit2:

Just got sync for Lemmy

As an anonymous user, you can see: Everything

Under this there are 3 sections: Post Sort, Communities, and Instances.

So just clicking communites should show you all of them while also being able to search for some.

You can also search through instances by clicking one, then clicking communities.

It seems to just help divide the working class and to continue to increase tribalism.

You do you!