AJA's scope of duties are to work on various issues concerning the Japanese animation industry, which most members are a part of.

Most of AJA's members are small to medium-sized companies, hence the need for AJA to unite together to overcome some of the bigger problems, such as infringement of intellectual properties, rampant piracy and illegal file sharing has risen following the introduction and widespread adoption of P2P networking software.

Besides the aforementioned, AJA also serves to resolve conflicts, and provide improvements of the general production environment, talents and oversea operations.

According to the 2017 report, overseas markets expanded 1.5 times the previous year to a record high.

Since April 2014, the AJA took leadership of Young Animator Training Project (若手アニメーター育成プロジェクト, Wakate Animētā Ikusei Purojekuto) an annual project first launched in 2010 by the Japanese Animation Creators Association and funded by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs in order to support training animators.