In a recent interview with Wired, the professor relayed some startling statistics regarding how little many professional illustrators earn in Japan.
Thanks to Japan’s extremely robust animation, comic, and video game industries, you’ll find plenty of budding artists who aspire to become professional illustrators.
According to Nishino, he was told by guest lecturer and colleague Ashito Oyari that a study by the Japan illustrators’ Association found that 53 percent of professional illustrators make less than one million yen (US$9,700) a year.
Among the educators ready to help them on that path is Kohei Nishino, a character design professor in the Faculty of Manga at Kyoto’s Seika University.