Japanese speaker here: His comments were absolutely taken out of context and partially mistranslated to serve an anti-DEI agenda. There are crazy Japanese people out there too, the same as a few weeks ago when Rachel Hutchinson's comments on Street Fighter were taken out of context.
Seriously, as if the creator's own words and concern about what he actually meant weren't evidence enough this was true!
@Sketcz This is a lot of great observations, thank you for them!
I went and reread a lot of the Twitter comments Yoshida-sensei was responding to...they echo a lot of the comments in this section!
It's really important people realize that Rachel's argument is not "Street Fighter was literally US vs Japan and the devs wanted that", she's just painting a picture like you have of the complex world that Street Fighter was developed in.
The tension between Japan being a "little brother" to American foreign policy aims and its desire to be a "normal country" is constant and has been one of the defining issues of the 20th and 21st century for a lot of Japanese people from the LDP politicians that forged the first Japan/America military treaty to the the leftist counterculture protesters of that treaty (who later went on to meet in Space Invaders cafes and coffee shops to discuss future efforts). It's had a massive effect, and that's really what Rachel was speaking to.
I was also in this documentary with Rachel, and can confirm that Yoshida-sensei's take is correct! Rachel wasn't suggesting that was the singular interpretation of the Street Fighter pairings, rather she was making a much larger point and siting the game within the context of the late 80s Japan/America rivalry and the titular Street Fighters themselves representing pastiches of national "character". Japanese people on the internet are just like people on the internet everywhere else: they'll take a singular piece of a much larger argument and take it out of context. It's totally fine to disagree with her take! But it wasn't just "Street Fighter was literally USA versus Japan".
If anyone speaks Japanese and would like to judge for themselves, the documentary mentioned is World Subculture History: 21st Century Geopolitics and Video Games. It's streaming now in NHK's apps and sites!
Comments 3
Re: Dragon Quest Vets Claim Comments On Censorship Were "Mistranslated"
Wow, I wasn't aware this had gotten traction.
Japanese speaker here: His comments were absolutely taken out of context and partially mistranslated to serve an anti-DEI agenda. There are crazy Japanese people out there too, the same as a few weeks ago when Rachel Hutchinson's comments on Street Fighter were taken out of context.
Seriously, as if the creator's own words and concern about what he actually meant weren't evidence enough this was true!
Re: Game Researcher Says Street Fighter II Was "USA Vs. Japan" And Japanese People Aren't Happy
@Sketcz This is a lot of great observations, thank you for them!
I went and reread a lot of the Twitter comments Yoshida-sensei was responding to...they echo a lot of the comments in this section!
It's really important people realize that Rachel's argument is not "Street Fighter was literally US vs Japan and the devs wanted that", she's just painting a picture like you have of the complex world that Street Fighter was developed in.
The tension between Japan being a "little brother" to American foreign policy aims and its desire to be a "normal country" is constant and has been one of the defining issues of the 20th and 21st century for a lot of Japanese people from the LDP politicians that forged the first Japan/America military treaty to the the leftist counterculture protesters of that treaty (who later went on to meet in Space Invaders cafes and coffee shops to discuss future efforts). It's had a massive effect, and that's really what Rachel was speaking to.
Re: Game Researcher Says Street Fighter II Was "USA Vs. Japan" And Japanese People Aren't Happy
I was also in this documentary with Rachel, and can confirm that Yoshida-sensei's take is correct! Rachel wasn't suggesting that was the singular interpretation of the Street Fighter pairings, rather she was making a much larger point and siting the game within the context of the late 80s Japan/America rivalry and the titular Street Fighters themselves representing pastiches of national "character". Japanese people on the internet are just like people on the internet everywhere else: they'll take a singular piece of a much larger argument and take it out of context. It's totally fine to disagree with her take! But it wasn't just "Street Fighter was literally USA versus Japan".
If anyone speaks Japanese and would like to judge for themselves, the documentary mentioned is World Subculture History: 21st Century Geopolitics and Video Games. It's streaming now in NHK's apps and sites!