Sociology of Labor in Animation

Shintaro Matsunaga specializes in the sociology of work, human resource management, and workplace studies. His sociological research focuses on sustainable work practices, career development, and management strategies for freelancers. Since around 2013, he has conducted continuous fieldwork on the animation industry, focusing on creators and production companies to examine animators' occupational norms, careers, and life courses, as well as the practical management of production processes by production managers. Major publications include How Animators Work: Sociology of Work on Freelancers Working Together (Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2020; in Japanese) and Sociology of Work in Industrial Change: An Experiential History of Animators (Koyo Shobo, 2022; in Japanese).

He served as a visiting researcher at the Estonian Academy of Arts for two years starting in 2012, and in 2019, he obtained a Ph.D. on Pritt Pärn from the Tokyo University of the Arts. He presented his research at Animafest Scanner, an international symposium for contemporary animation studies (2024, 2026). He will be speaking at the international symposium "Surrealism Anime," which will be held in Kyoto on November 22 and 23 this year. Furthermore, he presents animation under the artist name ALIMO. Recently, his work Juxtaposed LAND (2023)—a mixture of everyday life, allegory, and philosophy produced with the cooperation of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Saudi Arabia)—premiered at the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest Zagreb (2023).