Japan's booming animation industry is in crisis -- with low pay, long hours and a huge shortage of artists -- just as its global popularity has never been higher.

Three of the 10 feature films in the running for top prize at the world's most important animation festival in Annecy in France -- which ended Saturday -- are from Japan.

The country is the only real challenger to Hollywood's dominance of the labor-intensive genre.

But just as Japanese anime seemed to be threatening to loosen Pixar and Disney's grip on the popular imagination with the likes of the teen mega hit "your name." and a Nintendo Super Mario movie in the pipeline, long-running structural problems are in danger of sapping its rise.

With talk of a talent shortage, its greatest star, the legendary Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki, has come out of retirement at 78 to make "How Do You Live?" -- which may be released next year -- with speculation that he could take on another feature if his health holds.

Miyazaki blazed an arthouse trail with such animated classics as the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away", "Howl's Moving Castle" and the fabulous "My Neighbor Totoro".

But Yoshiaki Nishimura, a former Miyazaki stalwart who produced the Oscar-nominated "The Tale of The Princess Kaguya", told AFP that the industry was struggling to "face up to a lack of animators, bad working conditions and perhaps a lack of creativity".

His peers also complain of low pay, a paucity of emerging young talent and burn-out in overworked animation teams who often put in 12- to 18-hour days.

Rising star Keiichi Hara, who showed his new film "The Wonderland" at Annecy after winning the jury prize there four years ago with "Miss Hokusai", feared for the future.

"Perhaps the biggest problem in the Japanese animation industry is that there are no more young animators," he warned.

Ayumu Watanabe -- whose beautiful "The Children of the Sea" was shown out of competition at the festival -- worried about visual "standardization" and lack of originality, not helped by the fact that "fewer and fewer animators can draw well by hand."

Even industry heavyweights like Mamoru Hosoda, the genius behind "Wolf Children", "The Boy and the Beast" and "The Girl who Leapt Through Time", have to put in punishingly long hours with relatively tiny teams.

He told AFP last year that his latest hit "Mirai" was inspired by his wife complaining that she was a widow to his work, calling him to account for leaving her "to bring up my son on her own".

Watanabe said that the industry has split into two extremes: "Big productions who can call on an incredible number of animators and at the other end of the scale, and more artistic projects that have a lot less money."

All eyes later this year will be on the release of "Weathering with You", Makoto Shinkai's fantasy follow-up to the record-breaking "your name.", now the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.

Its production team unveiled a sneak preview of the supernatural story at Annecy, with a high-school runaway meeting a girl who can change the weather.

With a live-action version of "your name." in the works and U.S. television about to remake the cult Japanese series "Train Man" about an anime-obsessed youth, the genre has never been closer to the international mainstream.

Nishimura said that he has tried to keep the "Ghibli style and spirit going... with a mix of hand-drawn and computer animation" at Studio Ponoc, which he set up after Miyazaki -- a heavy smoker who was having health problems -- first hung up his pencil in 2013.

It scored its first hit in 2017 with "Mary and the Witch's Flower" and Nishimura premiered a series of new shorts at Annecy.

For him, the industry's woes are "the result of an accumulation of problems over the last five to 10 years", but he insisted his studio was trying to "create a new environment".

And as the wowed audiences at Annecy for Masaaki Yuasa's touching "Ride Your Wave" proved, despite its problems Japanese anime can still get things very right.

The story of love, surfing and grief struck a huge cord with critics at the French festival.

Amel Lacombe, whose company Eurozoom is a key French animation distributor, said the industry's travails are due to its rapid growth, and now "we are in a period of adjustment".

She believes that the Japanese authorities are waking up to anime's importance and global reach "as a export force". </s> An arson attack on an anime studio in Japan has left at least 33 people dead and dozens injured in Japan’s worst mass murder in nearly two decades.

The perpetrator, who was also injured and has been taken into police custody, walked into the 1st Studio building of Kyoto Animation in Fushimi ward, Kyoto, at about 10.30am. He poured what is suspected to be petrol in multiple areas of the building before igniting it.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called the attack “too appalling for words” and offered condolences.

There were more than 70 people in the building, which is Kyoto Animation’s main studio.

About 30 fire engines and ambulances went to the three-storey building after an explosion. Victims were taken to various hospitals in Kyoto.

The suspect, identified only as a 41-year-old male, was reportedly taken to hospital before being arrested by police, who said he had admitted starting the fire.

No motive for the arson attack has been reported, but Japan’s public broadcaster said he had shouted “drop dead” as he set the petrol alight.

Preliminary investigations by the police have uncovered no links between the subject, who has yet to be named, and the animation studio.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Firefighters at the Kyoto Animation building. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

“A man threw liquid and set fire to it,” said a Kyoto prefectural police spokesman.

Emergency calls to the city fire department reported there had been an explosion on the ground floor, while later calls included people shouting: “Help us, the fire is climbing.”

Images shot from a helicopter for NHK showed smoke billowing from the top floor and fire crews still battling the blaze of the badly damaged building hours after it had started. Fire crews said there might be more people left in the building.

The fire department said the three floors of the building covered a total of 700 sq metres and that every storey had been damaged by the fire.

Professor Yuji Hasemi, an expert in fire safety and materials at Tokyo’s Waseda University, told NHK that a combination of poor ventilation, an abundance of paper used by artists and the large amount of petrol likely caused the fire to spread too quickly for people to escape. No fire escape stairs were visible in images of the building.

Violent crime is rare in Japan, though it is not unknown. In July 2016, a mass stabbing at a care home by a former employee killed 16 and injured more. In September 2001, a fire at a building in the Kabukicho entertainment district of central Tokyo killed 44. Arson was suspected, but nobody was ever charged, meaning the Kyoto Animation attack is the worst confirmed mass murder in Japan’s post-war history.

Akidearest (@akidearest) I’m heartbroken seeing what happened to Kyoto Animation. I don’t know what that sick person must have had against that studio to set it on fire, but my condolences to all the hard working employees. I wish you all a safe recovery...

Kyoto Animation

Kyoto Animation, known as KyoAni, was founded in 1981 by Yoko Hatta, an anime producer. Her husband, Hideaki, serves as the company’s president. KyoAni has produced popular anime TV series and feature films, as well as publishing illustrated novels and manga. It is well known among anime aficionados around the world for its dedication to high-quality production techniques, with a catalogue that includes A Silent Voice: The Movie, K-On!, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star. Its company headquarters are in Uji city.

Kyoto Animation has a reputation for treating its employees well in an industry infamous for harsh working conditions, long hours and, for junior animators, very low pay. The growth of the genre’s popularity worldwide and increased demand for content from streaming platforms such as Netflix has put even more pressure on the studios at a time when Japan is experiencing a severe labour shortage. Most studios are booked out with projects up to two years ahead.

Many anime artists are paid on a per-frame basis and tight deadlines make the work gruelling and long hours inevitable. Kyoto Animation bucks the trend by making its animators full-time employees. This allows them to spend more time on each image and create high-quality anime.

One of its best-known franchises is K-On!, a comedy about a band formed by high-school girls. It started life as a manga comic book, before Kyoto Animation created two TV anime series that aired between 2009 and 2010. It was also broadcast overseas and released on DVD in the UK. Kyoto also produced a film directed by Naoko Yamada – which followed the girls’ graduation trip to London – that was released at the end of 2011 and grossed ¥1.64bn (£12.2m) in Japan. The film featured a cafe based on the Troubadour in Earl’s Court, south-west London, which has become a popular destination for fans.

A Silent Voice, also by Yamada, which dealt with childhood suicide, was hailed by critics and fans when it was released in 2016. Although overshadowed at the time by Your Name, whose director Makoto Shinkai lavished praise on it, it still took £29.4m ($33m) globally.

• This article was amended on 23 July 2019 to correct the location of the fire. It was at the company’s studio in Kyoto’s Fushimi ward, not at the headquarters in Uji as an earlier version said. A misspelling of Fushimi ward has also been corrected. </s> According to a widely reprinted and circulated report in the Wall Street Journal, for the first time since 2000, U.S. government bonds now yield more than all of their developed world counterparts. Looking just at the 10-year security, the yield on the benchmark Treasury note now yields more compared to a record number of countries, and the yield differential between the U.S. government note and its German bund counterpart is its widest in almost 30 years.

Basically, this means that the arguably safest investment available anywhere in the world – the one American business schools still hold up as a “riskless” benchmark – yields way more than most other sovereign debt, including Italy’s, Canada’s and Australia’s – but no, not Greece’s, although they’re not too far off.

Let’s look at the numbers.

As of May 22, the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was yielding 3.06%. Since breaking through the 3.0% barrier on May 14, the yield has remained mostly above that level ever since, hitting a high of 3.12% on May 17. That’s the first time the yield has stayed above the 3.0% level more than a day or so since 2011. While the yield has since come back down recently to below 3.0%, I think it’s more likely to hit 3.10% again before it moves much below 3.0%.

So how does that stack up to other developed country sovereign bond yields?

Using May 22 closing levels, the German bund – the benchmark for the eurozone – yields just 0.56%, or 250 basis points below the U.S. note. The Japanese 10-year bond yields just 0.05%. Elsewhere, 10-year U.K. gilts yield 1.52% -- half of what Uncle Sam pays – and Swiss bonds yield just 0.10%. Greece is at 4.39%, although that’s down sharply from recent years.

Even yields on Italian sovereign bonds, which have recently soared as an anti-establishment coalition seeks to form a government and return Italy to its financially-profligate ways, are way lower than their U.S. counterparts. The 10-year Italian government bond was recently trading at more than 2.40%, its highest level in four years. And yet it still yields a good 60 bps below what full faith and credit U.S. bonds yield.

Well, yes and yes.

Interest rates and bond yields, as we know, are a product of not only credit risk but also supply and demand and the cost of money. The U.S. passes the credit risk test with flying colors – not because our government is so fiscally responsible (it surely isn’t) but because it has the power to tax its citizens and businesses as much as it can get away with or, when that fails or isn’t enough, print and borrow more money. Few nations on earth can get away with that without creating hyperinflation.

Which leads to the second factor, supply and demand, and that’s where we see the reason for high U.S. borrowing rates.

 Uncle Sam is in debt by more than $21 trillion, far and away the most of any nation on earth. Indeed, America’s external debt is larger than the next three countries’ total combined: the U.K. at $8.5 trillion, France at $5.7 trillion, and Germany at $5.4 trillion.

In other words, the world is flooded with U.S. government debt. There’s obviously a price to pay to get people to buy it all.

Actually, the U.S. is pretty fiscally responsible compared to its developed world counterparts. That $21 trillion in external debt roughly equals the size of U.S. GDP. That’s a trivial percentage compared to 313% for the U.K., 213% for France, and 141% for Germany. Surprisingly, Italy’s sovereign debt to GDP ratio is only 124%.

Of course, there’s another big factor that puts upward pressure on U.S. yields, and that is monetary policy. While the U.S. has pretty much moved past the financial crisis and the Federal Reserve has at least started the process of raising interest rates and unwinding its massive balance sheet, the rest of the world still acts like their economies are in dire straits.

For example, the European Central Bank’s main interest rates are still at their record lows set two years ago, with the deposit facility at negative 0.40% and its main refinancing rate at zero. The Bank of Japan’s key short-term interest rate remains at a record negative 0.10%. Both central banks have shown no indication when they might start raising rates or unwinding their own giant bond portfolios. The Bank of England raised its short-term rate last November but hasn’t made any similar moves since.

In other words, while the Fed is trying to normalize monetary and interest rate policies, albeit very slowly, the rest of the developed world shows no inclination to follow along. Interest rates are being kept deliberately and artificially low, and may remain that way for who knows how long?

So what’s the takeaway from all this? Despite falling this week, I think U.S. interest rates and government bond yields are likely headed higher, which will make the yield differential with the rest of the world even wider. With practically no credit risk, U.S. government bonds appear to present tremendous value, at least against their global counterparts.

Visit back to read my next article!

Disclosure: This article is the opinion of the contributor themselves. The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. This contributor is not receiving compensation (other than from INO.com) for their opinion. </s> TOKYO/HONG KONG, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell to fresh six-week lows on Wednesday and the greenback stood strong against a broad swathe of currencies including the Japanese yen as concerns grew about the fading impact of the world's major central banks to stimulate growth.

Losses in stock markets across Asia deepened as rising bond yields and soaring volatility forced investors to unwind positions.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.2 percent, extending its decline since late last week to 4.2 percent.

Within the region, Japan's Nikkei led losers with a 0.3 percent decline as uncertainty grew ahead of a central bank policy meeting next week.

The BOJ plans to make its controversial negative interest rate policy the centrepiece of future monetary easing, promising to weigh further rate cuts as expansions to asset buying near their limits, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"The moves in developed market fixed-income, which are largely behind the volatility, have stemmed from Japan and the potential changes in monetary policy," said Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG Markets.

"Secondly, some of the biggest systematic funds have had to alter their portfolios. The rest of the market participants have had to simply react."

Stock markets have come under pressure as investors cut positions after large inflows in recent weeks betting on a long period of low volatility and suppressed bond yields.

Inflows into emerging market equity funds amounted to $24 billion dollars over the past 10 weeks, the highest on record according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch flow data. An index of market volatility soared to its highest level in three months.

On Wall Street, S&P 500 Index lost 1.48 percent to 2,127.02, a two-month low. Although it has managed to hold above its 200-day moving average at 2,121, a break of that level could sap market confidence. Futures were flat.

Bond yields extended their rise, suggesting more losses for equity markets with yields on 30-year Japanese debt hitting the highest levels in six months, unnerving investors.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield rose to a three-month high of 1.75 percent, having risen more than 20 basis points from a week ago.

The rise in U.S. bond yields came even as expectations on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy outlook hardly changed. U.S. interest rate futures are pricing in only about a 10 percent chance of a rate hike at next week's policy review.

While the rise in U.S. bond yields was in part due to heavy Treasury and corporate debt supply, it also reflected concerns about the limits of global central bank policy in reviving growth.

Bond markets have come under pressure in recent days from unease about a possible U.S. rate hike this month, news that the Bank of Japan is studying ways to steepen the bond yield curve and disappointment at the lack of clear forward-action plan by the European Central Bank at last week's meeting.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday that long-term decline in global bond yields is over and investors are watching out for a likely fiscal expansion in the world's major economies where monetary stimulus has reached its limits.

The prospects of a U.S. rate hike by the year-end helped to underpin the dollar against other currencies.

The euro dipped to $1.12200, a slight decline on the day and the week while the dollar also gained to 102.99 yen from Tuesday's low of 101.42 yen.

The yen was also dented by the Nikkei newspaper report on the BOJ and negative rates.

Short-dated Japanese bond yields fell, with the five-year JGB yield slipping 2.5 basis points to minus 0.200 percent while the two-year yield fell 2.0 basis point to hit a six-week low of minus 0.265 percent.

Crude oil prices edged up after a 3 percent tumble in the previous session. Brent futures rose 15 cents to $47.25 a barrel, while U.S. light crude rose 20 cents to $45.10 as data from an industry group showed a smaller-than-expected build in U.S. crude stocks. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Kim Coghill) </s> Thirty-three people have died and dozens have been left injured after a suspected arson attack in an animation studio in Kyoto, Japan.

A man reportedly shouted “You die!” before setting fire to Kyoto Animation studio on Thursday, local media reports.

The fire started in the three-story building after the suspect sprayed an unidentified liquid accelerant, Kyoto prefectural police and fire department officials said, according to the Associated Press.

With 33 dead, the fire is the worst mass killing in Japan since a man stabbed and killed 19 people at an assisted living facility in western Tokyo in 2016. In 2001, 44 people died in a fire in Tokyo’s busy entertainment district, but that it ruled accidental according to the New York .

Thirty six others were injured.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the fire was “too appalling for words” in a post on Twitter, adding: “I would like to express my sympathies to the injured people and pray for a quick recovery.”

Japan has a famously low crime rate. The number of crimes fell to about 915,000 in 2017, the lowest level in the post-war era.

Here’s what to know about the suspected arson attack on Kyoto Animation Co.

Who is suspected of starting the fire?

A 41-year-old man was reportedly seen pouring flammable liquid and setting it alight. A Kyoto prefectural police spokesperson told CNN he had a backpack containing several knives.

Broadcaster NHK said the suspect had been detained in connection with the fire and was later taken to hospital for treatment. A witness told NHK that the suspect was burned on his armed and legs and complained that something had been “stolen” from him, according to the AP.

He has not been identified by authorities.

What is Kyoto Animation Co.?

Kyoto Animation, better known as KyoAni, is unlike many other animation studios. Founded in 1981 by producer Yoko Hatta, is known for its focus on quality rather than quantity, preferring to hire full time illustrators rather than freelance ones.

The studio has produced TV series and feature films, as well as publishing illustrated novels and manga.

What shows and movies have they produced?

Its hits include anime such as , and . Its anime adaptation of the manga is one of its best-known works. The TV series, a comedy about five high school girls who play in a band, was very successful when it aired in Japan in 2009, according to the Japan . It was also broadcast overseas.

, a feature film that arrived on Netflix in the U.S. last month, was hailed by critics and fans when it was released in 2016. The drama based on manga by Yoshitoki Oima deals with fracturing friendships and childhood suicide. The gave it a four-star review, calling it “a beguiling film: subtle, sensuous and delicate.”

How are the fans reacting?

Thousands of fans and anime industry professionals have taken to Twitter to pay tribute to the studio. Many praised Kyoto Animation for treating its employees well in an industry known for harsh working conditions and low pay. A labour shortage combined with a growing demand for content around the world has put pressure on studios in recent years.

Mike Toole, editor-at-large at Anime News Network, wrote: “Kyoto Animation are a rarity in the anime business: they treat their people well, they strive to own part of their works, and their creations are consistently excellent, at the very least on a technical level.”

Sentai Filmworks, a licensing company specializing in Japanese animation and film based in Houston, Texas, has launched a crowdfunding campaign called Help KyoAni Heal. The campaign has raised over $300,000 our of its $500,000 goal. </s> Fresh off her big win for best new artist at the Grammys, Alessia Cara used her platform to sing the praises of musicians who don't get the same level of recognition.

Cara, 21, stressed the importance of other talented young artists getting the same opportunities she did to break out in the music industry, even if their styles don't align with what's considered popular today.

"There are some really, really awesome artists that have started amazing trends and that are doing such incredible things, but don’t get the same shot or the same acknowledgement because they’re not particularly mainstream or they’re not on the charts," Cara told reporters backstage at Madison Square Garden after winning her first Grammy.

"I think it's important that everyone deserves the same shot, and everyone should get one of these (awards) and be acknowledged for the amazing work that they do."

Grammys 2018: Winners and losers of the 60th annual awards show

Cara — who's exploded over the past two-plus years with hits like "Stay" and "Scars to Your Beautiful" — said it'd take a while for Sunday's honor to truly sink in.

She remembers pretending to win Grammys when she was a kid, but never thought the day would actually come.

"I would just thank non-existent people for non-existent music and stuff," Cara recalled. "I obviously wasn’t as nervous as I was. … I definitely was more calm and collected as a kid in my shower. I just didn’t expect any of this."

Cara, who hails from Ontario, beat out SZA, Julia Michaels, Khalid and Lil Uzi Vert to take home the award for best new artist.

"I’m such huge fan of all the other artists who were nominated, so I would’ve been just as happy if they won," Cara said. </s> Tesla CEO Elon Musk stirred up a bit of controversy a few months ago when he joined President Trump’s s economic and manufacturing advisory councils. While Musk’s participation predictably generated no shortage of criticism, Musk maintained that he would use the position for “doing good” on a range of issues.

As Musk explained via Twitter earlier this year: “Advisory councils simply provide advice and attending does not mean that I agree with actions by the Administration. My goals are to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and to help make humanity a multi-planet civilization, a consequence of which will be the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and a more inspiring future for all.”

All that said, Elon Musk earlier today took to Twitter again and relayed that he will leave the councils if President Trump opts to pull out from the Paris climate agreement.

While nothing is officially confirmed in either direction just yet, Axios earlier today reported that Trump has already decided to withdraw. As a quick refresher, the Paris Agreement — as it’s sometimes called — is an all-encompassing agreement designed to stem the rise of global temperatures, with the express goal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

As for why Trump might be interested in pulling out of the agreement, CBS notes:

But pulling out of the agreement is popular with Mr. Trump’s political base, many of whom are skeptical of the science underlying climate change policy. Critics of the accord say the limits on emissions place an onerous and disproportionate burden on American businesses…

With Musk now on record stating that he will leave the aforementioned councils if the Trump rumors are true, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few days. </s> MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – From the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting record highs to Como Zoo’s 10 hour Facebook Live marathon, here is a look at the top four stories from March 2, 2017.

All Eyes On The Dow Jones

Financial experts will be watching the Dow Jones to see if it hits record highs once again Thursday.

On Wednesday, it hit another major milestone, soaring above 21,000 points for the first time. The Dow also made huge gains in one day, quickly jumping more than 300 points.

New Details Released In Death Of Kim Jong Un’s Half-Brother

There are new developments in the death of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother.

North Korea said Kim Jong Nam died of a heart attack at an airport in Malaysia. But Malaysian officials believe two women are responsible for his death after they wiped a highly toxic chemical on his face.

The women are both in custody.

The accountants responsible for the best picture fiasco at the Oscars are being held accountable.

The academy has told Price Water House Coopers the pair will not be invited back for next year’s ceremony.

The accounting firm has apologized for handing out the wrong envelope.

How does 10 hours of non-stop animal videos sound?

On Thursday, Animal Planet is partnering with Como Zoo and 17 other zoos and aquariums for a Facebook Live marathon. It’s called “Inside the Zoo,” where viewers will get up-close access to all kinds of creatures.

The streaming starts at 8 a.m. To watch, click here. </s> The main Google campus in Mountain View, California. Google plans to create a US$250 million investment fund to provide incentives for developers to create more affordable homes.

BACK in 1998, Google paid just US$1,700 a month to rent its first office - half a home, including the garage, in Silicon Valley.

After two decades of extraordinary growth by tech companies like Google, real estate prices in the area have skyrocketed, fuelling a shortage of affordable housing and exacerbating inequality.

A small one-bedroom apartment near the company's current headquarters now costs about US$3,500 a month.

Now Google, saying it wants to be a "good neighbour", has plans to provide some relief. On Tuesday, it pledged to invest US$1 billion in land and money to build homes.

The company plans to repurpose at least US$750 million worth of commercially zoned land it owns over the next 10 years, Google's chief executive officer Sundar Pichai, said. Google would work with local governments to allow developers to lease the land to build homes.

In addition, Google plans to create a US$250 million investment fund to provide incentives for developers to create more affordable homes in the area, Mr Pichai said.

Although the details are not final, Google said the fund might provide loans or make investments in projects that were geared towards building affordable housing. The announcement is the latest attempt by tech industry leaders to tackle a problem they helped create but until recently had left largely unaddressed.

Google, Facebook, Apple and a host of startups have concentrated wealth in and around San Francisco and Seattle, attracting workers to those areas from across the world.

But the housing supply has not kept pace. As a result, buying or renting a home in those regions has become prohibitive for people outside the technology industry.

In January, Microsoft announced that it would allocate US$500 million to help provide affordable housing in the Seattle area.

That same month, a group of Bay Area philanthropists, including Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, also pledged to donate US$500 million to protect and expand affordable housing in the area.

Google's US$1 billion is not a donation, since the company will likely still make money off leases to developers or low-interest loans. Mr Pichai referred to them as a "US$1 billion investment". But Google may make far less money from the investments than if executives put the money in its core business.

The shortage of available land in Silicon Valley has made it difficult to increase the supply of housing. Google estimates the fund and the repurposed land could spur the building of at least 20,000 homes in the Bay Area.

"We hope this plays a role in addressing the chronic shortage of affordable housing options for longtime middle- and low-income residents," Mr Pichai wrote in a blog post.

Google made its announcement a day before the annual shareholder meeting for its parent company, Alphabet. In the past, the company has been criticised at those meetings for not doing enough to ease the housing problems in the area.

Google recently proposed plans to add new offices in Mountain View, where it has its headquarters, and in nearby San Jose.

In those development projects, the company has pushed for a mix of office and retail space along with residential properties, a departure from the sprawling office parks that are common throughout Silicon Valley.

Since 2005, California has added 308 housing units for every 1,000 new residents, about half the level of New York, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. That long-term shortage has only been worsened by the growth of tech: During the past eight years, the Bay Area has added about 676,000 jobs and 176,000 housing units.

The result has been punishing rent increases, rising homelessness and campers parked on Silicon Valley side streets. California now has not only some of the highest wages in the country but also the nation's highest poverty rate once the cost of living is figured in.

Just a few hours before Google's announcement, the National Low Income Housing Coalition put out a report that showed Bay Area counties account for five of the six most expensive places to live in the country.

In Santa Clara County, which includes Mountain View, a worker would have to earn US$54.60 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Despite its obvious and long-standing housing shortage, the state has struggled to find a political solution. Gavin Newsom, the new governor, campaigned on an audacious promise to push policies that would lead to the construction of 3.5 million new homes by 2025 - California is on pace to build about 1 million - but nothing that has happened in the Legislature suggests that goal will be even close to met. NYTIMES
Japanese anime developers report that the industry is in crisis, even as its popularity soars in its native country. Among the reasons are low pay, long hours, and a huge shortage of artists – just as its global popularity reaches record levels.