Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Japanese Animation Creators Association was founded on the 15th of October 2007 when over 500 animators gathered in Tokyo to announce the new organization. Toyoo Ashida stood at the podium to declare that the system was broken and the group formed to address the reality of animators working 100-hour weeks for wages that barely covered rent.
Toyoo Ashida, Satoshi Kon, and Moriyasu Taniguchi were among the voices that joined the movement to address the crisis of poverty and exhaustion. Yasuki Hamano, Nobuyuki Takahashi, and Akihiro Kanayama later played crucial roles in shaping the organization's early strategy and legal structure.
In 2010, the Japanese Animation Creators Association received 214.5 million yen from the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs. This sum was equivalent to approximately US$2.27 million and was designed to combat the outsourcing of animation work to overseas studios.
The Japanese Animation Creators Association gained legal weight in June 2008 when it was incorporated as an Unlimited liability company intermediary corporation. This structural shift allowed the organization to engage directly with government bodies and studios to move beyond mere protest into actionable policy.
The government provided funding to the Japanese Animation Creators Association to combat the outsourcing of animation work to overseas studios. The Agency for Cultural Affairs feared that if core techniques were lost to foreign hands, the unique cultural identity of Japanese animation would vanish.