{"id":45549,"date":"2025-03-12T17:32:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T08:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=45549"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:32:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T08:32:39","slug":"genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/","title":{"rendered":"Genshin Impact: Ifa&#8217;s Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Genshin Impact <\/strong>developer Mihoyo issued an official statement that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer voice Ifa in the Japanese version of the hit Chinese mobile RPG. Although the notice only says \u201cdue to various circumstances\u201d and does not specify why, Japanese fans are speculating that this sudden announcement might be due to political factors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3010\u51fa\u6f14\u8005\u964d\u677f\u306e\u304a\u77e5\u3089\u305b\u3068\u304a\u8a6b\u3073\u3011<br>\u3053\u306e\u5ea6\u3001\u300e\u539f\u795e\u300f\u306b\u51fa\u6f14\u3092\u4e88\u5b9a\u3057\u3066\u304a\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u68ee\u4e45\u4fdd\u7965\u592a\u90ce\u69d8\u3067\u3059\u304c\u3001\u8af8\u822c\u306e\u4e8b\u60c5\u306b\u3088\u308a\u3001\u3084\u3080\u3092\u5f97\u305a\u964d\u677f\u3059\u308b\u3053\u3068\u3068\u306a\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\u95a2\u4fc2\u5404\u6240\u306b\u3054\u8ff7\u60d1\u3092\u304a\u304b\u3051\u3057\u307e\u3057\u305f\u4e8b\u304a\u8a6b\u3073\u7533\u3057\u4e0a\u3052\u307e\u3059\u3002\u2026<\/p>&mdash; \u539f\u795e\uff08Genshin\uff09\u516c\u5f0f (@Genshin_7) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Genshin_7\/status\/1899664144800080249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Apology announcement regarding performer withdrawal:<\/em>\u00a0<br><em>Showtaro Morikubo was due to appear in Genshin Impact, however, he has been forced to withdraw from the project due to various circumstances. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to all related parties. We would also like to deeply apologize to all players for any inconvenience and concern caused. We ask for your understanding in this matter.<\/em>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3053\u308c\u306b\u51fa\u305f\u305b\u3044\u304b <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/61buwR1IH2\">https:\/\/t.co\/61buwR1IH2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/l99E22onij\">pic.twitter.com\/l99E22onij<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u3042\u304b\u307e\u3055 (@akamasaW) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/akamasaW\/status\/1899670794315391014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Post translation:<\/strong> <em>Is it because he was in this?<\/em>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As pointed out by Japanese speaking users on X, Showtaro Morikubo appeared in a live reading in Tokyo back in August 2024 called Inochigake no Shougen (Life-risking Testimonies). This was based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.jp\/%E5%91%BD%E3%81%8C%E3%81%91%E3%81%AE%E8%A8%BC%E8%A8%80-%E6%B8%85%E6%B0%B4-%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E3%81%BF\/dp\/4898315003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">book<\/a> of the same name by Tomomi Shimizu which contains testimonies of Uyghur people. It likens the Chinese government\u2019s treatment of the Uyghur to the Nazi party\u2019s suppression and genocide of Jewish people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was originally announced that Morikubo would be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact back in October 2024, two months after Inochigake no Shougen was performed. However, Mihoyo suddenly announced today that he would no longer be in the cast. If the reason for his dismissal from Genshin Impact is due solely to the play he was in last year, then it is not clear why Mihoyo even announced his appearance in Genshin. Some Japanese users speculate that the withdrawal could be for other reasons, while others wonder if the decision suddenly came down from the Chinese government, albeit months later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of writing, the real reason for Morikubo\u2019s withdrawal from the Genshin Impact cast is unconfirmed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":45557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-45549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Genshin Impact: Ifa&#039;s Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.\" \/>\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\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genshin Impact: Ifa&#039;s Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-12T08:32:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-12T08:32:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250312-45549-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"571\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Genshin Impact: Ifa's Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.","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\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Genshin Impact: Ifa's Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-03-12T08:32:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-12T08:32:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":571,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250312-45549-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":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/"},"author":{"name":"Verity Townsend","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d093b34094aa444f3b5cf8d2af3a6bad"},"headline":"Genshin Impact: Ifa&#8217;s Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political","datePublished":"2025-03-12T08:32:36+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-12T08:32:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/"},"wordCount":345,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250312-45549-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Global)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/","name":"Genshin Impact: Ifa's Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250312-45549-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-03-12T08:32:36+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-12T08:32:39+00:00","description":"Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250312-45549-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250312-45549-header.jpg","width":1200,"height":571,"caption":"Genshin Impact Ifa Japanese VA change controversy"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/genshin-impact-ifa-japanese-voice-actor-suddenly-changed-fans-speculate-that-the-reason-is-political\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Genshin Impact: Ifa&#8217;s Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political"}]},{"@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\/45549","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=45549"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45553,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45549\/revisions\/45553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}