Recently, manga author Shunsuke Kakuishi (Yawara no Michelangelo) made waves in the manga and anime news cycle by requesting back pay for all the overtime he worked when he was still just a manga assistant. To a great deal of shock and surprise, Kakuishi has received his missing overtime wages.
The story began in early-January, following an interview with Kakuishi's former boss, Norifusa Mita who stated that he treated all of his employees and assistants very fairly. Kakuishi then took to his personal blog to refute that claim, citing a period of 2 years and 4 months of work on the Investor Z manga (ironically, a manga about the value of money) where he worked well over 8 hours a day and didn't receive any additional pay.
Kakuishi did more than just write an angry blog post. He went to the Labour Standards Inspection Office in Japan and presented copies of his timecard during the time he worked as an assistant. Mita wasted little time paying the overdue wages to Kakuishi and did one better- making similar payments to his other assistants as well.
Kakuishi's lasted blog post thanked Mita and didn't place the blame squarely on his former boss. Instead, he pointed the finger at manga publisher's, who need to make sure that the upfront manuscript payments they send to authors are enough to cover overtime pay for assistants. Kakuishi also stressed that financial compensation wasn't his primary goal as he simply wanted to raise awareness of the onerous working conditions that many assistants operate in when starting out in the industry.
After 11 years and 7 months working as an assistant, Kakuishi made his professional debut with the seinen martial arts manga, Yawara no Michelangelo.
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