Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba and National Diet members slam Ubisoft over Assassin’s Creed Shadows cultural disrespect

8.jpg

GmXbjcPaIAAI0J9


Clips from the Parliamentary discussion on Assassin's Creed Shadows




【Summary of Japan's Parliamentary Discussion on Assassin's Creed Shadows】

Hiroyuki Kada reviewed early gameplay footage of Assassin's Creed Shadows and raised concerns about:

• A shrine altar being destroyed in the game.
• A shrine from his home district appearing without permission to use its name.

Kada then pointed out the risk of the game encouraging real-world vandalism, noting that:

• Some tourists have climbed shrine torii gates and committed graffiti.
• This kind of cultural disrespect is unacceptable.

In response, Vice Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Ōgushi stated that unauthorized use of real-world locations is unacceptable.

Prime Minister Ishiba responded:

• Graffiti on shrines is absolutely unacceptable.
• Japan will not simply remain silent on such issues.
• Showing respect for local cultures should be common sense.


 
Last edited:
Well, as much as l love Ubi's drama, I think we should just leave it to us incels to dunk on Ubi.

Congressman should have better things to do than this.
As much as I enjoy our rare incel victories, the reality is that it seems all woke Westerners are simply unaware of how conservative East Asian cultures are

Ubisoft FAFO is just so enjoyable to witness
 
Fucking Ubisoft starting international incidents in this climate.

As much as I enjoy our rare incel victories, the reality is that it seems all woke Westerners are simply unaware of how conservative East Asian cultures are
Not just 'woke westerners'. Westerners in general have a general lack of education about other cultures.
 
I can understand where the video is coming from, but it's a stretch. I remember when GTA was going to have kids out stealing cars, doing blow, and beating women. I would think Johnny Somali would be a bigger issue running around Japan acting a fool than Assassins Creed
 
Damn, they're really, really upset. This is bad PR, Ubisoft should just update and swap out the main character or something.
 
This is bad PR, Ubisoft should just update and swap out the main character or something.
Big "I don't know how much you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert)" vibes
 
Lol, the contrast is funny, GoT recieved only praises, love and prizes, ACS only hate and shit.

Japanese ppl has spoken GoT is the best AC japan
 
Last edited:
So they get called out, but are they going to take any actual action? Would honestly love to see the game get banned in Japan or something.
 
Careful Ubisoft, you don't want to mess with these japanese politican, almost all of them have either a rinnegan, sharingan, or sage mode
 
Yeah, a Japanese youtuber.



Some of those arguments seem exceptionally ignorant though, like he's just scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to make something stick. I mean, Sekiryu "not looking Japanese" or the banner looking like a Qing dynasty banner and "not Japanese at all", just comes off as a foolish mix of national pride and not wanting to admit any influence or resemblance to the Chinese as they're really not the best of friends. The Japanese version of a grifter?

I really shouldn't have to be the one saying this to a Japanese person, but China and Japan have had immense cultural effect on each other throughout history, in artwork as well. There is a great deal of ukiyo-e, pottery, and whatnot with dragon designs just like the Sekiryu and the dragon banner, in their shrines and temples as well. Japanese even adapted Seiryu, which - surprise surprise - is a very Chinese god (Qinglong) with a very Chinese looking dragon design, but in Japan it's a guardian spirit.
 
Big "I don't know how much you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert)" vibes
They may have not, but after the backlash they haven't relented. Why? This is horrible PR and doesn't seem controversial in Japan, where seemingly most people are upset and you'd lose nothing by backtracking.
 
In Valhalla didn't they design it so you literally couldn't attack civilians or anything, even though you play as a viking? What was the thought process in Shadows to allow you to go around destroying shrines and killing regular people and stuff?
 
They may have not, but after the backlash they haven't relented. Why? This is horrible PR and doesn't seem controversial in Japan, where seemingly most people are upset and you'd lose nothing by backtracking.
They don't care because no one in Japan buys AC games anyways

It's important to realize the distinction between AC Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima. From Day 1, Sony and Sucker Punch intended for Japanese gamers to buy and play GoT and in fact they did, it sold over a million in Japan which is very unusual for a Western studio developed game

Ubisoft has never had any success selling AC titles in Japan, it was always seen as a Western franchise. From Day 1, Ubisoft never had any misconceptions that anyone in Japan would buy an AC game set in Japan, so the game was exclusively made for the Western audience
 
Last edited:
They may have not, but after the backlash they haven't relented. Why? This is horrible PR and doesn't seem controversial in Japan, where seemingly most people are upset and you'd lose nothing by backtracking.
I don't think its possible to backtrack the main character himself when you are at this stage of development

if yasuke is just a side character like in nioh then sure its possible to just remove the boss battle
 
Bad PR is bad PR. Is it not the case that Ubisoft is losing money? This is just stupid.
If the game sells well in the West, then they accomplished their goal. They do not care what Japan thinks about their game set in Japan, because they never had any illusions that Japanese gamers would buy it anyways

Check my edited post for a longer explanation
 
Top Bottom