SNA (Tokyo) — A popular video game set in a fantasy world triggered an online debate among Japanese, highlighting ideas and social attitudes regarding anti-black racism.

The game in question is Final Fantasy XVI, which was released on June 22. It is set in a pseudo-medieval European world, with magical powers and fantasy creatures such as dragons and goblins.

While the game quickly garnered a great deal of popularity, it also faced criticism for not including any black characters.

Eurogamer, a major international video game website, was among the publications which highlighted what it regards as a lack of racial diversity, arguing that “several locations take open inspiration from North Africa and the Middle East, with towns that, for example, riff on Islamic architectural traditions and attire, but are predominantly or exclusively populated by anglophone white people… I find the deletion of people of color from these spaces more sinister than the racial stereotypes of older Final Fantasies.”

Such criticisms of the game were introduced to Japanese netizens through 5channel, an internet bulletin board allowing for anonymous participation. It set off a vigorous debate with over six hundred replies.

The following includes translated excepts of this debate which took place in Japanese language.

“Why do we need to argue over a virtual world?” one user complained. “This is so stupid. Why are Westerners so radical?”

Other commenters agreed that they found the criticism of the game on racial diversity grounds to be fundamentally incomprehensible.

Many felt that there were simple solutions to the controversy. Along these lines, one user wrote that “black people should just make their own video games with the appearance of the black characters.”

Still others took issue with the notion that a Japanese company like Square Enix, which produced the game, should be forced to defend itself against criticisms that are rooted in American history, not the Japanese experience.

“It was the West that imposed slavery, so why are white people now preaching to Asians so condescendingly? The ones who have blood on their hands are Westerners,” argued one. Along similar lines, another commentator added that “American shouldn’t enforce their values on us. They are the ones who brought black people out of Africa and enslaved them. It’s the Americans who need redemption, not Japanese.”

Far less defensibly, at least a few participants expressed clearly racist sentiments. For example, one person argued that “most videos showing theft, mob lynchings, violent discrimination against Asians, assaults on the police, and moral decay on social media are perpetrated by black people. It’s neither the police nor the media that makes them look like villains. It’s just a fact. I really think black people are an inferior race.”

One critic of that particular post responded with the appeal that “in this day and age, you just can’t go around excluding blacks, gays, or disabled people.”

Naoki Yoshida, the game’s producer, gave his own response to the critique as follows: “Our design concept from the earliest stages of development has always heavily featured medieval Europe, incorporating historical, cultural, political, and anthropological standards that were prevalent at the time… It can be challenging to assign distinctive ethnicities to either antagonist or protagonist without triggering audience preconceptions, inviting unwarranted speculation, and ultimately stoking flames of controversy.”

The game sold over three million copies worldwide in less than a week after its initial release, and it became the fastest-selling game on the PlayStation 5 platform in Japan.

For our full news coverage, become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon and receive our “Japan and the World” newsletter.