Japan's declining population - a cause for concern in anime?
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-10-17/.107730
"As of its most recent census last year, the population had dropped 0.7% -- a very fast decline. Over a third of the country's population is over 60, and the working age population is now 9.7 million fewer people than it was in the 90s. There's been a lot of socioeconomic study and discussion over why so few people are having children. There are a number of favorite targets: a culture that makes women choose between having a family or a career. A lack of child care. A sex trade and media industry that makes it easier to live with otaku delights than to get a date. A generation of men that seem to have a diminished sex drive. It may be some of these things, it may be all of these things."
"In macroeconomic terms, this is a disaster. Fewer people in the work force means a huge drop in the country's productivity. Fewer consumers mean fewer people buying things. A shrinking economy means recession, a diminished place in the world, and possibly economic hardship. Japan is the world's third largest economy, and it really has nowhere to go but down. That economy has been largely stagnant for the last few decades (after its fall from world dominance in the 90s), and over time Japanese politics has become increasingly preoccupied with restoring the country to some sort of glory. Unfortunately that image of glory is often the sort of nationalism that bleeds into racism and pre-WWII imperialist nostalgia, so the easy way of temporarily fixing things -- letting in a ton of immigrants -- is probably a non-starter."
"Anyway, Japan's seemingly-inevitable tumble off the economic cliff in the next few decades is a constant concern for every Japanese business, especially one such as anime, which still depends heavily on the domestic market to make its money, and on domestic talent to get produced. The anime industry is trying to head this disaster off at the pass. t's generally thought that overseas sales are now as important to a show's bottom line as domestic fans -- perhaps moreso.
Animation studios have also been investing heavily in new studios in other parts of Asia, training workers in an ever-increasing number of animation tasks. New techniques like cel-shaded CG are also aimed at reducing the number of people needed to produce a show. This is not just a cost-cutting measure, it's a survival measure. The studios are preparing for a future in which there are far fewer Japanese people to both make anime and buy anime."
I hope Japan has a future that keeps giving anime, that's all.
07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.