News
Labor Group: Anime Firm Filed for Bankruptcy This Week
posted on by Egan Loo
The Eisanro labor union reports that a company, one that produces a popular television anime for children and families on NHK's Educational and Broadcast Satellite channels, filed for bankruptcy on August 31. (Eisanro is a labor union for the Japanese movie, television, animation, and culture industries.) Since the Tokyo District Court already accepted the filing, the unnamed company is effectively bankrupt. According to Eisanro, the total debt that the company owed to affiliated companies, subcontracting companies, and its own production staff is in the nine digits by yen (or seven digits by American dollars). NHK is fielding calls to respond to the situation to protect the livelihoods of the subcontracting companies and the unnamed company's own staff.
The financial research firm Teikoku Databank reported that more medium-sized and small anime production companies reported a drop in revenue compared to the larger companies last year. Just three days before the bankruptcy filing, three ministries of the government requested over 2.8 billion yen (about US$33 million) to advance the "Cool Japan" initiative of promoting Japan's creative industries.
The website of the production company SYNERGY SP is currently "being renewed," but has not been identified as the unnamed company.
[Via Kyo mo Yarareyaku]
Update: Kyo mo Yarareyaku's link corrected. Thanks, bayoab.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history