{"id":36345,"date":"2024-09-02T18:25:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T09:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=36345"},"modified":"2024-10-08T14:36:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T05:36:05","slug":"shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan. Namely, his dissatisfaction with Japan\u2019s strict video game rating system- and how it can even cause games to be completely banned in the region- such as Dead Space and The Callisto Protocol<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The topic came up in a recent interview with Shinji Mikami and Goichi \u201cSuda51\u201d Suda on Game*Spark<\/a> about the upcoming remaster of their game Shadows of the Damned (Shadow of the Damned: Hella Remastered) due to be released on multiple platforms in October, 2024.  The conversation turned to how differences between Japan\u2019s rating system and overseas meant that they had to censor parts of the game for the Japanese console releases (for both the 2011 original and the upcoming remaster), basically releasing two different versions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shadows
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To be launched on consoles in Japan, games must obtain a rating from Japan\u2019s CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) board. Although download-only titles have the option of getting a classification from the IARC instead, all games with 18+ content in Japan must pass CERO\u2019s regulations. On the other hand, PC releases on Steam in Japan usually end up being uncut, as they don\u2019t have to pass through CERO.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an odd system because games end up being restricted due to rules made by people who don\u2019t play games, blocking the enjoyment of those who want to play them,\u201d Mikami explains.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suda51 agreed, commenting, \u201cWe have no choice but to deal with imposed regional restrictions as part of our job, but I always wonder what the players will think. For example, it\u2019s a bit sad if people go \u2018I\u2019ll buy the PC version on Steam because I want to play uncensored\u2019, even though our game (Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered) is available on a variety of platforms. Who are these restrictions for? I feel like they are not for the customers who play the games.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shadows<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the topic of games that fell afoul of CERO\u2019s rules, Mikami mentions the original Dead Space (2008) \u201cIt could not be released in Japan due to (CERO\u2019s) restrictions and those who wanted to play it had no choice but to track down an overseas copy.\u201d At the time, Mikami got to talk to the game\u2019s developers at EA Redwood Shores. \u201cThis left such an impression on me that I remember it even now – one of the people there was in tears, saying \u2018We can\u2019t sell the game in Japan even though we worked so hard…!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan\u2019s CERO age rating has been criticized in the past for its \u201cvague\u201d review process and a lack of consistency in the games it denies ratings to. The Dead Space remake in 2023 was also refused classification for \u201cdepictions of cross-sections of severed body parts and internal organs,\u201d however Stellar Blade was released uncensored<\/a> with a CERO D (17+) rating for similar levels of gore in 2024.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dead
The Dead Space remake<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Historically, CERO has been particularly tough on gory depictions of severed body parts, however they have also called for censorship or removal of sexual content for games to qualify for a CERO Z (18+) rating. Examples include the removal of sex scenes in the Japanese release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 (in which genitalia was also censored in rather amusing way<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suda51 concluded that game censorship in Japan is a difficult issue: \u201cIt would be good if they could make a CERO X certificate that\u2019s higher than CERO Z, so that overseas games could be released in Japan unaltered.\u201d He also mentions the burden on developers. \u201cFor the remaster (of Shadows of the Damned), we had to make two versions… which had a huge impact in terms of workload and prolonged the development period.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered<\/a> is scheduled to be released for PS4\/PS5. Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam) on October 31, 2024. In Japan, the console versions will be censored, whereas the Steam version will be uncut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan, namechecking Dead Space and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":36351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-36345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nShinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan, in relation to Dead Space and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan, in relation to Dead Space and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-02T09:25:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-08T05:36:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240902-36345-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan, in relation to Dead Space and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan, in relation to Dead Space and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2024-09-02T09:25:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-08T05:36:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":506,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240902-36345-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Verity Townsend","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Verity Townsend","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/"},"author":{"name":"Verity Townsend","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d093b34094aa444f3b5cf8d2af3a6bad"},"headline":"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0","datePublished":"2024-09-02T09:25:02+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-08T05:36:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/"},"wordCount":711,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240902-36345-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/","name":"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240902-36345-header.jpg","datePublished":"2024-09-02T09:25:02+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-08T05:36:05+00:00","description":"Mikami recently spoke out about game censorship in Japan, in relation to Dead Space and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240902-36345-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240902-36345-header.jpg","width":900,"height":506,"caption":"Game censorship in Japan Sahdows of the Damned Hella Remastered"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shinji-mikami-slams-video-game-censorship-in-japan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d093b34094aa444f3b5cf8d2af3a6bad","name":"Verity Townsend","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pz-WVnDc_400x400-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pz-WVnDc_400x400-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pz-WVnDc_400x400-100x100.jpg","caption":"Verity Townsend"},"description":"Automaton West Editor and translator. She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/verity-townsend\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36345"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38016,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36345\/revisions\/38016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}