Voice acting in Japan
Japanese voice actor or actress
Voice acting in Japan is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including anime, video games, audio dramas, commercials, and dubbing for non-Japanese films and television programs.
In Japan, voice actors (声優, seiyū) and actresses have devoted fan clubs due to a crossover with the idol industry, and some fans may watch a show or play a game merely to hear a particular voice actor. Many voice actors have concurrent singing careers and have also crossed over to live-action media.
There are around 130 voice acting schools in Japan. 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 Animec and Newtype to describe a voice actor associated with a particular anime or game character.
Definition and role
A voice actor (声優, seiyū) provides voice-overs for characters and narration for various types of media, including anime, video games, audio dramas, 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 "koe no haiyū" (声の俳優), but was later shortened to a compound word to make the word "seiyū" (声優).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Voice acting in Japan” is japanese voice actor or actress. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Voice, acting and Japan, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q622807. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Voice acting in Japan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.