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{{Short description|Industry and occupation}}
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{{Expand Japanese|声優|date=December 2009}}
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{{Anime and manga}}
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'''Voice acting in Japan''' is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including [[anime]], [[video game]]s, [[Radio drama#Japan|audio dramas]], [[Television advertisement|commercials]], and [[dubbing]] for non-Japanese films and television programs.

In [[Japan]], {{nihongo|'''voice actors'''|声優|seiyū}} and actresses have devoted [[fan club]]s due to a crossover with the [[Japanese idol|idol]] industry, and some fans may watch a show merely to hear a particular voice actor.{{sfn|Poitras|2001|p=90}} Many voice actors have concurrent singing careers<ref>{{cite journal|year=2004 |trans-title=Short anime glossary |title=Краткий анимешно-русский разговорник |journal=[[anime*magazine]]|issue=3|page=36|issn=1810-8644|language=ru}}</ref> and have also crossed over to live-action media.

There are around 130 voice acting schools in Japan.<ref name="Daily-Yomiuri">{{cite news |first1=Terumitsu |last1=Otsu |first2=Mary |last2=Kennard | title=The art of voice acting |work=[[The Daily Yomiuri]] | page=11 |date=April 27, 2002}}</ref> Broadcast companies and talent agencies often have their own troupes of vocal actors. Magazines focusing specifically on voice acting are published in Japan, with ''[[Voice Animage]]'' being the longest-running.

The term '''character voice''' (abbreviated '''CV''') has been commonly used since the 1980s by such Japanese anime magazines as ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Animec|ja|3=アニメック}}'' and ''[[Newtype]]'' to describe a voice actor associated with a particular anime or game character.

==Definition and role==

A {{nihongo|voice actor|声優|seiyū}} provides voice-overs for characters and narration for various types of media, including [[anime]], video games, [[audio drama]]s, live-action stunt and puppet shows, and commercials. A voice actor also provides dubbing for non-Japanese television programs and films. The initial term for voice actors in Japan was {{nihongo|"koe no haiyū"|声の俳優}}, but was later shortened to a compound word to make the word {{nihongo|"seiyū"|声優}}. While several voice actors{{who|date=March 2022}} opposed the term, believing it devalued their roles as actors, only after voice acting became more prominent{{when|date=April 2020}} did the word become more widespread.

There are three main factors that set voice actors and traditional actors apart:
* Their professional upbringing by the {{nihongo|Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe|東京放送劇団|Tōkyō Hōsō Gekidan}}, formed by [[NHK]] and other private networks during the golden age of radio.
* The lack of Japan-made movies and dramas forced TV networks to air foreign shows, which raised demand for voice actors.
* The boom in the anime world market, which produced a wave of young talents who wanted to become voice actors, rather than traditional actors.

==History==
Voice acting has existed in Japan since the advent of radio. It was only in the 1970s that the term seiyū entered popular usage because of the anime ''[[Space Battleship Yamato]]''. According to a newspaper interview with a voice talent manager, "Since the Yamato boom, the word 'seiyū' has become instantly recognised; before that, actors and actresses who introduced themselves as seiyū were often asked, 'You mean you work for [[Seiyu Group|Seiyu supermarket]]?{{'"}}<ref name="Daily-Yomiuri"/>

=== Early history ===
The earliest Japanese animation would predate the introduction of audio in film by at least a decade.  Much like their live-action contemporaries during this period, screenings would have musical accompaniment and oftentimes include a ''[[benshi]]'' (narrator).  The benshi would fulfill a role similar to ones in the Japanese puppet theater and magic lantern shows, where the narration would fill in dialogue and other story elements.  With the introduction of [[Sound film|sound in film]], voices were often pulled from the available staff.  For example, in ''[[Benkei tai Ushiwaka]]'', animator [[Kenzō Masaoka]] cast himself and his wife as the titular Benkei and Ushiwaka, respectively.{{sfn|Clements|McCarthy|2015|p={{pn|date=September 2022}}}}

===Radio drama era===
In 1925, the Tokyo Broadcasting Company (predecessor to the [[NHK]], Japan's public broadcasting system) started radio broadcasts. In that same year, twelve students who were specialising in voice-only performances became the first voice actors in Japan when a performance of a radio drama was broadcast. They referred to themselves as "seiyū", but in those days the term {{nihongo|"radio actor"|ラジオ役者|radio yakusha}} was used by newspapers to refer to the profession.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

In 1941, NHK opened a training program to the public to prepare actors to specialise in radio dramas. This was called the {{nihongo|"Tokyo Central Broadcasting Station Actor Training Agency"|東京中央放送局専属劇団俳優養成所|Tōkyō Chūō Hōsō Kyoku Senzoku Gekidan Haiyū Yōsei Sho}}. Then in 1942, the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe debuted its first performance. This was the second time that the term "seiyū" was used to refer to voice actors.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

There are several theories as to how the term "seiyū" was coined. One theory is that Oyhashi Tokusaburo, a reporter for the Yomiuri Newspaper, coined the term. Another theory is that Tatsu Ooka, an entertainment programming managing producer for the NHK, came up with it.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

At first, voice actors, like those at the Tokyo Radio Drama Troupe and similar companies, specialised in radio dramas; with the advent of television, the term took on the additional meaning of one who does dubbing for animation. Television broadcasting aside, when radio was the leading mass medium, actors who played in radio dramas were not without their fans; for example, actors in the Nagoya Radio Drama troupe who played the lead love interest roles often received many fan letters.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

===1950s: First voice actor boom===
Starting in the 1950s, a rise in the popularity of radio dramas as well as foreign television and film created many new opportunities for voice actors.<ref name="Miyashita & Shimbun 2018">{{cite news |last1=Miyashita |first1=Yuki |last2=Shimbun |first2=Yomiuri |date=24 April 2018 |title=Let's go to the museum / Voice acting traced across the decades |work=The Japan News |id={{ProQuest|2029787132}} |url=http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004370572 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424154721/http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004370572 |archive-date=24 April 2018 }}</ref>  After the {{interlanguage link|1950 Broadcasting Act|ja|放送法}}, the ''[[NHK|Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK)]]'' began public broadcasting.<ref>{{cite web|title=Broadcast Law: Broadcasting for the Public|url=http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/aboutstrl/evolution-of-tv-en/p08/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018085435/http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/aboutstrl/evolution-of-tv-en/p08/index.html|archive-date=18 October 2015|access-date=27 July 2015}}</ref> Among these new broadcasts were several radio dramas, such as the 1952 drama ''{{interlanguage link|Kimi no Nawa (Your Name)|ja|君の名は}}'', which would receive several adaptations on film, television, and stage due to its popularity.<ref name="Miyashita & Shimbun 2018"/>

Actors that were famous for their roles in dubbing and radio were used for their star power to voice similar characters in several anime productions.  For example, [[Yasuo Yamada]], who was famous for his Japanese dub of [[Clint Eastwood]], was chosen to voice [[Lupin III (character)|Lupin III]] for the ''[[Lupin the Third]] series.''{{sfn|Clements|McCarthy|2015|p={{pn|date=September 2022}}}}

===1960s===
In 1961, during the early days of commercial television broadcasting, the [[Five-Company Agreement]] (Gosha Agreement) caused the supply of Japanese movies that were available to Japanese television stations to dry up. As a result, in the 1960s many foreign dramas and other foreign programming was imported and dubbed into Japanese language for television broadcast.

At first, the NHK subtitled most foreign shows; however, shows dubbed in the Japanese language soon became the standard. At the centre of the first voice acting boom were actors like [[Nachi Nozawa]], who dubbed the same foreign actors, in Nozawa's case [[Alain Delon]], [[Robert Redford]], and [[Giuliano Gemma]]. Because of problems with pay guarantees arising from the Gosha Agreement, cinema actors were prevented from dubbing foreign movies for television. Television actors were also prevented from dubbing because of a similar agreement. This caused studios to turn to actors from the radio age and actors from the ''[[Shingeki]]'' style of acting. Around this time dubbing of foreign animation was done by [[Rakugo]] story tellers, [[Asakusa]] comedians and the like, and voice actors were called "dubbing talents" if they specialised in dubbing, while those giving voice to a character went under the name of "''ateshi''". It is during this golden age for dubbing that the [[Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society]] was founded. Later, Haikyo voice acting managers left and opened their own management agencies. Voice actors in Japan also voiced anime.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

The first dubbed show broadcast in Japan was an episode of the American cartoon ''[[Superman (1940s cartoons)|Superman]]'', on October 9, 1955, on KRT (today [[Tokyo Broadcasting System|TBS]]), and the first non-animated dubbed show broadcast was ''Cowboy G-Men'', again by KRT, in 1956. Both were dubbed live; the first show to be broadcast with pre-recorded dubbing was {{nihongo|''[[The Adventures of Television Boy]]''|テレビ坊やの冒険|Terebi Bōya no Bōken}} on April 8, 1956.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

===1970s: Second voice actor boom===
During the late 1970s, [[Akio Nojima]], [[Kazuyuki Sogabe]], [[Akira Kamiya]], [[Tōru Furuya]] and [[Toshio Furukawa]] were the first to unite into a band, {{interlanguage link|スラップスティック (バンド)|ja|スラップスティック (バンド)|lt=Slapstick}}, and perform live. Many other voice actors released their own albums. At around 1979 the first anime magazines began to be published. The then-editor-in-chief of [[Animage]], [[Hideo Ogata]], was the first to publish editorials on the ongoing transformation of voice actors into [[Japanese idol|idols]].{{sfn|Clements|McCarthy|2015|p={{pn|date=September 2022}}}} Following his lead, the other magazines created "seiyū corners" with information and gossip about voice actors; this was one of the main causes of young anime fans yearning to become voice actors.<ref>尾形英夫『あの旗を撃て! 「アニメージュ」血風録』オークラ出版、2004年、60頁、120頁。</ref> This period also saw a gradual split of anime voice actors from their roots in theater.  With the rise of voice-actor-specific training centers and audio-only productions, voice actors could start their careers working full time without any association to a broadcasting theater company.  The term "seiyu" emerged to describe these voice actors who focused solely on voicing for anime productions.<ref name="Miyashita & Shimbun 2018"/> This boom lasted until the first half of the 1980s.

===1980s===
In 1989, the voice actors of the five main stars of the animated television show ''[[Ronin Warriors]]'' ([[Nozomu Sasaki]], [[Takeshi Kusao]], [[Hiroshi Takemura]], [[Tomohiro Nishimura]] and [[Daiki Nakamura (actor)|Daiki Nakamura]]) formed an all-male singing group called "NG5". The group was featured as the subject of a special documentary program on [[Mainichi Broadcasting System|MBS]].

During this period, voice acting production companies also began to provide specialised courses at on-site training schools specifically for training in animation dubbing.

===1990s===
[[File:Maria Yamamoto Fanime 2005 Meet the Guests reception.jpg|thumb|Voice actress [[Maria Yamamoto]] in 2005]] 
The 1960s and 1970s booms were centered on media, such as the TV. In the 1990s, a new boom centred on more personal ways of communication, such as radio shows, [[Original Video Animation]], television quizzes, public events and the Internet, gave way to the publication of the first dedicated voice acting magazines, {{Interlanguage link multi|Seiyū Grand Prix|ja|3=声優グランプリ}} and [[Voice Animage]]. Voice actors acquired many new fans thanks to the radio, and their CD sale figures increased. Concerts began to be held in the bigger halls. While the second boom also saw the voice actors become DJs, this time the recording houses backed the voice actor radio shows as sponsors, and large sums of money began to circulate. [[Megumi Hayashibara]], [[Hekiru Shiina]] and [[Mariko Kouda]] are the first examples of this new trend. Recording companies and voice acting schools began to devise new ways to raise young voice actors.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

When voice acting was introduced in television games, the same voice actors would perform in a series of events related to the television game world, making appearances and participating in radio programs based on the television games to attract the fanbase.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

In the second half of the 1990s, the boom in the animation world led to an increase of anime shown in the Tokyo area. With the Internet, gathering information on their favourite voice actors became easy for fans, and voice actors began to appear in Internet-based radio shows.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

From {{start date|1994}} to {{end date|2000}}, the world's first digital [[satellite radio]] broadcaster, [[St.GIGA]], transmitted [[episodic video game]]s with voice acted overdubs in a separate and continually streaming vocal track (a technique called [[SoundLink]]), to be played in Japan on [[Nintendo]]'s [[Super Famicom]] video game console with its [[Satellaview]] peripheral.<ref>''[http://srad.jp/story/03/09/30/002224/ さよならセント・ギガ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720115659/https://srad.jp/story/03/09/30/002224/ |date=2020-07-20 }}''. SRAD.jp. 30 September 2003.</ref><ref name=mamoru>Mamoru, Sakamoto. ''[http://www.aa.alpha-net.ne.jp/mamos/digital/pcm.html PCM音声放送デッドヒートのゆくえ（St.GIGA開局前夜・BSアナログ放送）]''. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216005800/http://www.aa.alpha-net.ne.jp/mamos/digital/pcm.html |date=2012-02-16 }}. Alpha-Net. 2 October 2003.</ref> ''[[Satellaview games from The Legend of Zelda series|BS Zelda no Densetsu]]'' was identified by Nintendo as the world's first integrated radio-game.<ref name=bsz1worldfirst>{{cite video game| title = Sore wa Namae o Nusumareta Machi no Monogatari| developer = [[Nintendo]]| publisher = [[Nintendo]]/[[St.GIGA]]| date = February 13, 1995| platform = [[Satellaview]]| version = 1995/8/8| language = ja| isolang = ja| quote = '''Kabe shinbunsha''': ８月６日（日）のスタート以来、全国を興奮と感動の渦に巻き込んでいる、世界初のラジオ／ゲーム連動プログラム「ＢＳゼルダの伝説」が大好評につき９月の再放送がついに決定した。}}</ref>

===2000–present: Idol and real-life crossovers===

{{see also|Japanese idol#Anime and video games}}

During the mid-to-late 2000s, voice acting talents began crossing over with the [[Japanese idol]] industry.<ref name="oricon20080702">{{cite news | url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/55993/full/ | script-title=ja:角川とアップフロントがアイドル声優オーディション開催 | language=ja | work=[[Oricon]] | date=2008-07-02 | access-date=2018-12-28}}</ref> Prominent examples include [[Aya Hirano]], [[Koharu Kusumi]], and [[Nana Mizuki]], all of whom were established actors or singers in mainstream entertainment before entering voice acting.<ref name="oricon20080702"/> While character song tie-ins were already common in the film industry by then, some voice actors also began making crossover television, stage, and concert appearances as their characters as well, leading them to be closely associated with one another.<ref>{{cite news | author=Junko Yano | url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/music/special/061025_03.html | title=月島きらり starring 久住小春（モーニング娘。）『スーパーアイドル・きらりの2ndシングルPV到着！』- | language=ja | work=[[Oricon]] | date=2006-10-25 | access-date=2018-12-27}}</ref><ref name="oricon20080702"/> The term "2.5D", which picked up frequent usage in the mid-2010s, was used to describe voice actors who would portray their characters in real life, such as television or stage plays.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/48664/ | script-title=ja:男性アイドルシーンに異変 「地方」「2.5次元」「アニメ」の異色出自アイドルたち | language=ja | work=[[Oricon]] | date=2016-02-07 | access-date=2019-01-16}}</ref> Over the mid-to-late 2010s, multimedia projects where the voice actors would appear as their characters in real life became popular, such as ''[[The Idolmaster]]'' and ''[[Love Live!]]''<ref>{{cite news | author=Hiroki Tai | url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/47672/ | title=最近よく聞く"2.5次元"、その定義とは？ | work=[[Oricon]] | date=2015-02-15 | access-date=2019-01-16 }}</ref> The magazine ''Seiyū Grand Prix'' noted that over 1,500 voice actors were active in 2021, compared to 370 voice actors (145 men and 225 women) in 2001.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2185155/full/ | title=声優人口、男女ともに増加で"史上最多" 「声優名鑑」20年で370人→1500人超と4倍 | language=ja | work=[[Oricon]] | date=2021-02-20 | accessdate=2021-02-21}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Seiyu Awards]]
* [[Voice acting]]
* [[:Category:Japanese voice actor management companies|Japanese voice actor management companies]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last1=Clements |first1=Jonathan |last2=McCarthy |first2=Helen |title=The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century of Japanese Animation |date=2015 |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |isbn=978-1-61172-018-1 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Poitras |first1=Gilles |author-link1=Gilles Poitras |title=Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know |date=2001 |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |isbn=978-1-880656-53-2 }}

==External links==
*[http://www.usagi.org/~doi/seiyuu/ Seiyū (voice actor) database]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060411201835/http://sdb.noppo.com/ Miracle voice actors and magical voice actresses] Voice actor database {{in lang|ja}}
*[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php Anime News Network Encyclopedia] Database of anime staff and cast members.

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[[Category:Japanese voice actors| ]]
[[category:otaku]]
[[Category:Voice acting|Japan]]

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