In the 1970s and 1980s, the animation industry in Japan saw the emergence

of distinctive consumers, called “anime fans.” This brought quantitative and

qualitative changes in products in the animation market. The aim of this paper

is to reveal how animators dealt with this change and how they reformed their

working culture. The authors have shown that the working culture underpinned

market movements in the 1970s and 1980s.

　　Historically, animators preferred working as freelancers on a piece-rate

system rather than as regular workers on a fixed salary. This was due to their

meritocratic occupational norm. However, the number of animation programs

increased during the anime-boom period, and animators were forced to cooperate

with a much broader workforce to produce many programs suitable for the

diverse demands of fans. This limited animators’ discretion. In this study, the

authors wanted to understand how it was possible for the animation industry to

continue supplying the workforce necessary to adapt to market changes during

this time.

　　For this purpose, the authors analyzed texts in animation magazines from

the perspective of the labor process theory, which explains the relationship

between workstyles and the transformation of markets. One of the key concepts

of this approach is workers’ shared norms. The authors also employed

ethnomethodology, which elicits vivid insights regarding such norms, to analyze

round-table talks and interviews with animators working at animation magazines.

　　While animators understood the quantitative expansion of the animation

market as limiting their discretion, there was a disparity in how they coped

with the situation. The older generation recognized their skills in detail and

relied on networks built by longtime co-working. The younger generation

accepted the new situation and found their occupational value in the new working

environment through the occupational image of “the artisan.” This image

reflected the new occupational competence and made the formation of peer

communities of young animators possible. This industrial transformation sustained

the supply of a broad workforce, which drew on various expressions during

the anime-boom period.

　アニメ産業において制作者が用いるスキルは客観的な形式で表現されないが，同業者内では理解可能な形で共有されているという特徴を有する。本稿では，評価の基準が変わりながらその都度の状況に適切な判断がなされることを意味する「浮動する規範」という考え方に依拠しながら，アニメ制作者の語りに基づいて彼らが理解する実力の内実を明らかにした。その結果，同じ監督層であっても，工程全体を見渡すことを経験した制作進行や撮影職出身者と，作画や映像表現に特化した

芸能などの芸術産業に比して，労働集約性が高く熟練した制作人口を大規模に必要とするアニメ産業では，制作者の定着への志向がいかに維持されるかが課題となる．定着が維持されるためには，制作者が仕事を獲得し続けられる見通しをもてることが必要である．アニメ産業ではプロジェクトベースの契約が主流である制作者を，労務管理側が評価することが難しいため，制作者同士の相互評価が産業への定着志向を持ち続けるうえで重要になる．本稿ではアニメ産業の制作者同士の相互評価が機能しうる場としてのインフォーマルなコミュニティを支える構造的条件とその限界について，

近年の技術革新に伴い現場の管理側が若手中心になり，管理側からの

産業への定着志向が維持されるためにはインフォーマルなコミュニティが必要である．本稿はそのコミュニティがどのように揺らいでいるかの構造的条件の解明の重要性を指摘した．

This article reveals how veteran animators in the Japanese animation industry understand the technologies introduced recently regarding their occupational careers. The animation industry in Japan has promoted the digitalization of the picture drawing process. However, previous research has not mentioned how workers built their careers to introduce new technologies while working in the creative industries with precarious work conditions. Management studies on the technology introduction fail to grasp the diversity of animatorsʼ understandings. Even sociological research has not paid attention to the occupation like animators, in which workers donʼt have the rigid objection in their careers, such as becoming independent self-employment.

Based on the interview research on the animators who started their working life in the 1980 s, one of the most significant transformation periods of the animation industry, this article clarifies the narratives of technology introductions. Animators who worked at only a few firms donʼt see the technology introductions as they should deal with.

On the contrary, animators who worked at many studios interpret the technology introductions as directly affecting their career formations. Among such animators, this article compares two animatorsʼ narratives concerning turning points in careers, reference groups in the occupation, and the stance for digitalization. This analysis revealed the two has quite different understanding on new technology and artfully deal with the digitalization in their careers. Moreover, the difference in coping practice stems from the difference in the working process, skills and reference groups.

In the light of these findings, this article pointed out that the introduction of technology should also be promoted progressively, taking into account the logic of the workersʼ side.

The aim of this paper is to reveal why animators working in Japan don’t regard their low-paid and long-time work as problems. Previous studies haven’t theoretically considered animators’labor process. Instead, this paper revealed relations between their occupational norms and their logic of acceptance of bad work conditions with ethnomethodological analysis of interviews.

The conclusion of this paper is as follows: Firstly, there are two types of norms in animators’workplace. One is“artisan”norm, which means that animators should follow instructions of upstream workers, the other is“creator”norm, which means that animators should show their originality. Artisan norm is superior to creator norm. Secondly, understanding and using skillfully these norms is a kind of requirement to be a competent animator. Thirdly, both norms have a common feature, which means that animators should have high-level techniques. Sustained by this common feature, animators compete for higher skills. However, their competition has been intensified because there are many cases that high skill workers can’t earn appropriate wages by some institutional factors. As a result, animators who earn wages to manage to make their living become relative winners. However low-paid their labors are, animators who can make their living are winners, and so they don’t tend to regard their work condition as problems.

ベッカーのアート・ワールドの議論では、表現に直接かかわる職種と、それを支える職種の線引きが当事者のなかでなされていることが指摘されてきたが、そうした職種が置かれた組織構造に関心が払われてこなかった。本稿では、日本のアニメ産業におけるデジタル化推進の動向を事例に、アート・ワールド上の線引きと組織構造の関係を議論した。 とくに、表現を担う