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INTEREST: Japanese Illustrators Work Hard For The Money &#8212 Or For Free

The government held a Cool Japan promotion meeting on April 3 where officials proposed creators work on the campaign's posters and slogans for free.

Reminded me of a recent New York Times opinion piece.

"For a particular magazine, one color illustration 10 cm^2 would sell for 2,000 yen (~$20). This is around 1/3 to 1/6 of the market price. I cried and cried, but accepted that value. I accepted the offer because I wanted work." The magazine had waited until the illustrator finished her drawing before revealing how much she would be paid.

Manga artist Robinson Haruhara (Senyū.) weighed in when a fan asked on Twitter if being a manga artist is profitable. He jokingly referred to a cost slip showing his finances in the red, but later corrected himself, stating he makes 700 million yen (~$7,126,700) a month, although this was probably a joke, too.

The market hardly fairs better for the average freelance illustrator.

"For a particular magazine, one color illustration 10 cm^2 would sell for 2,000 yen (~$20). This is around 1/3 to 1/6 of the market price. I cried and cried, but accepted that value. I accepted the offer because I wanted work." The magazine had waited until the illustrator finished her drawing before revealing how much she would be paid.

Thanks for this link. It's so true.

I've noticed that some people blame corporations for the wrongs. But what about artists themselves? Shouldn't they be wise enough to handle their fees and upfront about the labor cost?

[all income is, essentially, economic rent, because a truly competitive market delivers prices at the marginal cost of production and in all real-world cases the marginal cost of production is less than the actual cost of production: everyone in a true competitive market loses money. Only by reducing competition -- whether by price coordination or by formal or effective barriers to entry -- can a business actually make real profits. And this goes for multinationals, self-employed people, and wage labour: this is why we used to have unions, but -- oddly -- the previous union structures couldn't work with a -- no-doubt spontaneous -- shift to contracting in preference to wage labour. But, y'know, don't hate the game, hate the player.]