Some Fans Are Calling For A Boycott Of Pokémon After Creatures Inc Shares Controversial Tweet

in before people who don't live in Asian countries complain about something they don't understand

I'm sorry but this is just too dumb. People need to stop acting like children and stop demanding things whenever a developer or individual in the game industry does something they don't agree with. Talk about entitled children.

I'll complain for this, something I don't understand.

It's one thing for people to visit as individuals in their spare time but for a corporate entity with an international consumer base is very poor judgement.

The souls are very angry indeed, the dorks online that is...

I dont get it. Did they visit it just because of tradition and just did a mistake or to be racist and laugh at the chinese people who died?

Thats kinda dumb if you ask me. It's called a TRADITION. It was probobly close to the office which is likely why they went. Stop complainh people!

@YorkshireNed No it's not, first of all we don't know why they visited it seeing as what I've read certain places they probably went to the shrine for a whole different reason than what that shrine stands for(could be wrong there of course.).
2nd of all, you can't make demands like a child whenever someone does something you don't agree with.
It's embarrassing, no wonder people outside this industry treat us like stereotypical nerds and pathetic children when this is how many gamers are making us look like.

If the Shrine is so controversial, why on earth would Creatures post it on Twitter?? Companies hate controversy, and this seems like such a rookie mistake.

Oh no I'm shooked.
I'll never buy a Pokemon game ever again.

Yeah right.

Um, they probably should've known better than to post that to Twitter in the first place.

This is why companies have social media managers.

@MoonKnight7 Who knows, most likely it is because this is just a TRADITION and everyone refuse to listen to reason and just want to act like a SJW and make demands.

Or because they are japanese and don't care about the US SJWs and do what they want.

@Kal_ Will you go and cry in the shower now in fetal position?

@TAndvig

How is it entitled?

Those employees are allowed to visit a shrine if they want to, and others are allowed to dislike it and refrain from purchasing their products.

I don't understand what happened or why it's bad.

@Franklin It is acting entitled the moment you make demands because someone did something you don't agree with as if they have to live by your standards that is acting entitled.

And this isn't disliking this is throwing a fissy fit because you don't like what you see which is very common with these SJWs.

I've been to Auschwitz, I've been to Pearl Harbour, I've been to Cambodian Killing fields, sorry but this is just stupid (The way people are acting over this tweet) they were just saying Happy New Year. There are war criminals in that place what what about the rest of the honoured dead in there. Will people stop being so outraged with dead people and look at the poor people still alive in the world.

Tradition isn't sufficient justification for anything in isolation, it has to be defended or advocated based on merits or demerits.

I didn't want to look this up too much but according to Wikipedia
(So Unreliable) this is so controversial it needed its own page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Yasukuni_Shrine

This has happened before and it will happen again, unless people change or the shrine gets burnt down.

@Kal_ Burn down? So now we are going to act like Isis and just burn or destroy any cultural value that we don't agree with?:S

@Bunkerneath Thank god there is another reasonable person on here.

@CharlieSmile

I don't know enough about it to comment but I find it somewhat ironic your only contribution is to have a dig at other users and you don't actually contribute to the article in any productive way.

I bet you were real proud of your post too.

Unfortunately in the age of social media, a few voices can get a lot of attention (especially from the news media).

Folks really love throwing around that ridiculous term....

And I agree @CharlieSmile.

A boycott of the series? That sounds a tad too far, if you ask me. But then, people take everything seriously online now.

I'm curious how is this any different from visiting a former concentration camp? I'm not being sarcastic.

@Mrtoad Exactly

@SBandy
Then what is the point of your comment? You didn't contribute anything either. It just sounds like you wanted a quick and easy moral victory.

I bet you were real proud of your post too.

I'm not going to even act like I understand why this is controversial from a cultural stand point, but from a corporate stand point, I can see why this is being considered a bad PR move.

@TAndvig @MysticGengar @idrawrobots @LoriLoud

Well, as I'm korean, I can tell you why these people are so mad.

From 1910 to 1945, Korea was under control of japan, simply being a colony. While Korea was struggling down under Japan, THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of people died due to unwanted war, which was WWII.

The main problem is that someone who was controlling in that war in japan, meaning the people who killed thousands are in that shrine.

The meaning that Creatures went there means that they are unrespectable to the people who died due to the people whom are in that shrine.

This situation was not only about Korea. It was also about China, Vietnam, Thailand, and many more. In total, more than million people died due to the people in that shrine.

Paying respect to that shrine basically means equal to paying respect to Nazi.

It isn't just about Internet, people.

• Edit: In my opinion, Boycott was waaaay too far. past is past and now is now. But I wish creatures to at least say sorry. that's my opinion btw.

On for goodness sake...

Culture of outrage strikes again

@Desrever Not really, the japanese market is the biggest they have for their games, it isn't bad pr it is simply neither good or bad since it won't affect them.

@Mrtoad

Well, I personally wouldn't advocate that either, but the difference is that the shrine is perceived as a deliberate attempt to venerate war criminals, whereas former concentration camps are not for that purpose, as far as I understand.

@TAndvig

The gargantuan amount of advertising for Pokemon Let's Go in Hong Kong seems to suggest that Nintendo at least views China as a worthwhile market.

@Franklin Yes of course, they are a corporate selling to all available markets is not the same as this is bad pr that will hit them bad. >.<

@aiden0309 Thank you for giving us at least a bit of a personal perspective from someone who has some cultural understanding and connection

Living in China, people do tend to get pretty sore about this sort of thing. I definitely understand the severity of the crimes committed by Japan, but a lot of the rage behind it seems to be nationalist brainwashing.

They were human beings after all. People still watch WWII shows that view common soldiers on the opposition as subhuman. It is propaganda and it’s sad to see how even after all these years, people don’t see the war for what it really was.

@TAndvig It was posted to their official twitter account. It was not on a random employee's account. They killed 26 million civilians so of course people are upset.

@UmbreonsPapa

You're welcome!

@aiden0309 Sorry but this is not even close to the same as honoring nazis, the shrine is to honor everyone who fell while protectinig the emperor this has nothing to do with Korea even, which already tells us that the reasons for visiting this shrine can be several.

@Franklin
"deliberate attempt to venerate war criminals"
Of the 2,466,532 people about 1,072 were convicted war criminals.
I'm pretty sure shinto shrine (I've been to Japan before, they're very pretty) isn't built to honor anyone. Especially war criminals. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

@Faber If you actually read about what the shrine was built for then you should understand that there could be several reasons to visit that shrine so stop acting like people have a reason to be so hurt and insulted by this.

@Kal_

I acknowledge I had nothing to add in the first line of my post. I just don't like people who write "in before" but don't actually contribute anything.

I accept I haven't contributed anything but I seen your post and fair play to you.

OK my contribution will be: people are free to be offended and refuse to buy products etc to show it, but that doesn't mean others have to care and change their ways as a result.

It is a general answer as I do not know anywhere near enough about the history and it will probably be too depressing to read up on. I am not on either side of this argument.

@Fuz

Well, as you might expect, there are some people who pays way more attention than it should be. Also, there are some people who just hates japan.

But the thing that war criminals are getting honoured is the main point. That's why it's getting issued.

so, basically it's half by half.

This is some pretty weird turn of events right here!

As my opinion is coming from someone with a very limited knowledge of Japanese culture, it’s going to be less reliable then others. However, from what I know, people should be able to make visits to places without being judged for it. Just because they went to the shrine doesn’t mean they’re glorifying the actions of their ancestors.

@Equinox Are you being ironic or not because Jesus Christ that may be the lamest statement on the internet

@TAndvig @TheFanatic

Well, the point is that the people in that shrine are WAR CRIMINALS. They killed million.

Paying respect to shrine isn't problem. problem is the shrine they went.

I went to Japan more than 20 times in my life. I love japan and I have also payed respect in more than 10 shrines all over japan.

Yasukuni Shrine is not a normal Shrine. I want you to notice that.

Ah, and once again the whiny children of the online world get their way. Silly morons. It doesn't matter what reasons they went there for. They went and had a good time. If you care so much, you have a problem.

@SBandy
Nice.
And it's not too depressing of a read, just melancholic.(Wait that's the same thing, frick)

I can somewhat understand what people mean about Creatures Inc. being offensive, a good PR move would be to just apologize (They already removed the tweet). Not buying a product you normally would because of a slip-up that doesn't actually affect said product is sad to me ( If they were gonna buy it in the first place).

@Fuz

Everyone else are not the problem! Not at all! people are mad about that handful of war criminals.

@aiden0309 I get that. Regardless, they aren’t honouring these people, they’re just visiting. As someone else said, the majority of the names in their aren’t war criminals. Plus, if places like this weren’t visited then history would be forgotten. People need to see these places to learn of the atrocities and why they must never happen again. When I was at school, we did Nazi Germany. The school trip was to Auschwitz. While some truly horrific things happened there, people still go because of its importance to history.

If people are upset by something, you don't get to tell them they aren't allowed to be upset, that isn't how this works.

@TheFanatic

Well, This shrine is not meaning "Don't forget Our bad History.", Unlike Auschwitz.

Paying respect means "I wish you, Dead Person, would rest in peace and have nice days in heaven" in japan. That should not go to war criminals.

But I also agree that peiple are way too mad about this thing.

All cultural context aside, it's still pretty weird that your job is holding a team building exercise at a shrine for fallen soldiers to go take a bunch of selfies at.

@aiden0309 I’m not trying to belittle the crimes or the victims of these atrocities, but how much of this continued rage do you feel is manufactured?

Do you think the South Korean government has a moment of silence for the Vietnamese who were killed by their military?

I know it’s not on the same level, but I find it scary how little self reflection is done when other country’s people are slaughtered.

@Darthroseman
But they do have the right tho.

@NotTelevision

100% Agreed! I also agree that people are way too Outraged about this. But, something wrong is wrong. They need to say sorry at least.

@NotTelevision

And about vietnam and korea. Well, not many people in korea know about this. But, there are some people who are angry to our government for not saying sorry to vietnam. I'm one of e'm. Please remind that some people, like me, are really feeling sorry to vietnam at least.

So why can’t you go and pay respect to all the other people who are remembered there without being branded as war criminal apologists?

@BenGrimm Because the shrine honors war criminals in the same place? Is this supposed to be sarcasm?

People die, wars happen, get over it.

@Tupin
Nope, was genuinely curious. Just because some one goes to a certain place doesn’t mean they agree or believe in every detail there.

@aiden0309 I don't think they should, their country, their rules, their tradition.

All of the people involved tgat time are either too old or dead. Time has passed, and people have lived their lives after WW2.

Speaking from the Philippines here, a nation that was the Poland of the Eastern Front in World War 2 and the place of the famous Bataan Death March.

We never really recovered enough after World War 2 and we just have to live on and let everyone else do so. But apologies from them to do their fulfil their traditional obligation is kind of like asking our muslim friends down south to stop doing their Haj because a specific group terrorized our citizens there and beyond as long as they don't impinge upon our traditions in the same manner. Just grab a bottle of Soju and I'll grab my coconut wine and meet in Japan for Sake, my dude.

Gotta love the people who immediately go on the defense as if this is a "culture war" thing and not actual Koreans and other groups being legitimately upset that a company that makes video games goes to a shrine that honors war criminals. One war criminal honored spoils the site, that's why it's controversial in Japan itself.

@BenGrimm Why is a video game company going to a site that honors war criminals?

@Tupin
Because they felt like it I guess and from what I can tell it’s not illegal to visit so they’ve done nothing wrong technically.

@hatch "I'm upset that other people are upset, rrr!"

I have nothing to say on the subject at hand as it relates to cultural issues that don't involve me, but I will say that articles like this do serve one purpose: Anyone using the term "SJW's" unironically in the comments can be safely added to my ignore list and nothing of value will have been lost.

I don't have a problem with this.
So people who do must be idiots.
Or different to me.
Well, I could do some research and find out why people are complaining....
No, far easier to just call people stupid!

@Equinox
oh no
guess I better throw away all 367 of my video games

@idrawrobots i was thinking it has something to do with animal cruelty, not this.

@Equinox Developers understand making money. Your "core gamer" demographic is great for selling £60 shooters too, but the real money's in things like Pokemon go.
Core gamers are increasingly irrelevant to the games industry.
Oh dear, what a pity, never mind.

I am really trying to understand why this is so controversial, so please someone explain.

I get that it's 'wrong' to honor the roughly 1600 'war criminals'. But there are also other people (2 million according to this article) being honored there, right? Why can't people go to this shrine then?

@Darlinfan It's ironic that modern China of all things, is angry at imperialist actions when they are imperialist themselves and will not let the Uyghurs or the Tibetans give them the freedom that they want. I find it hypocritical of the Chinese to think that way when I see them building man made islands with military bases of the coast of my country.

I will still buy there games

@link422007 yes and there 1989 thing

...I don't understand what this article is trying to say. There is a memorial, so people shouldn't be able to visit? Or only Japanese people shouldn't be able to visit? Or only these people shouldn't be able to visit?

This is about as clear as mud

@AlternateButtons Aren't you exhausted by trying to trivialize every single issue as stupid moaning? This is like if Germany had a war memorial that had the names of open Nazi Party members on it. This shrine is controversial within Japan and has been for a long time.

@Mando44646 A multinational company that sells games to Korea and China went to a memorial that glorifies people who committed war crimes on the people of Korea and China. What is there not to get?

@Tupin thank you. That actually makes it clear to me; the article doesn't state that at all, from what I could gather re-reading it 3 times.

It would be like a German international company paying respect at a shrine devoted to Nazis then, if I had to compare?

@Darlinfan

Hear hear.

@andrew20 The Tienanmen Square massacre for me was a scary sight being so close to China. Although that was done by a faction (Jiang Ze Min) within the CCP that now has little power compared to Deng Xiao Ping's faction these days, I still find it worrisome that many of their politicians are political hardliners that managed to slip through Xi Jinping's cracks who himself has consolidated power by cracking down on Jiang Ze Min's group. Many of us here don't trust China with a ten foot pole.

@Sabroni

Preach! XD

Companies need to be criticized for publishing tone deaf messages on social media - do your research properly if you want to boost business by pretending to be friends with your customers.

@Mando44646 the comparison is very little when compared to the millions of names written there. I mean 1,600 names is less than 1%. It's probably more like putting a criminal in a cemetery meant for heroes.

@AlternateButtons It concerns every country they sell their products in. And no, it isn't. The Imperial Japanese did horrific things on the level of their Nazi allies during the war. And guess what? Japan honors them. Can't recall if they still deny that comfort women existed but that was a big thing for a while too.

@Equinox I find it interesting that you have that take on what “core” gamers want and value. Especially in a not so flattering light. Certainly, you don’t speak for everyone. Though I wouldn’t say your too far off base in some respect. Many in the gaming community, unfortunately, have made it clear they don’t care about these things when it comes to gaming.

However, Mass Effect and Battlefield’s crappy sales aren’t because of people wanting representation. It’s because of lazy ass game developers who churned out the same slop year after year.

People will whine and moan about anything these days. Good grief; I loathe our collective species.

Ask yourself: Imagine there was a monument that partly honours Nazi WW2 officers and there was a celebrity / company visiting this monument to pay respect. Would the following outcry be justified or not? This is basically the equivalent for many asian people.

@aiden0309

Thanks for your explanations, too bad that the ignorant will keep blaming SJW's and internet whiners without reading your post first.

My only take on this, from what I've watched on a variety show years ago, most parts of those era has been erased from Japan's history, meaning textbooks, so it's possible that these people truly are oblivious as to their own history.

If it's still the case, I'm not blaming the devs, I blame the government.

_{Don't insult other users outright like that.}

@Tupin Let them. Again, I don't see the point of outrage anymore. They are dead. Familes have moved on. It's Japan's religious right to express it in their country. And this is coming from a country ravaged by the Japanese and where they also raped women, sent men to their deaths in a long march, and tossing babies in the air before being bayonetted for fun and some of them were comitted by Korean POWs.

Yet here we are, dealing with Japan the most for their automobile industry, researchers in agriculture sharing information about rice, and outsourcing jobs. I understand the pain the Chinese and the Koreans have gone through but to act like they were wronged without the introspection that they had done human rights abuse in the past really decreases the validity of their indignation.

I often wonder if people who label these critics as SJWs think there is ANYTHING anyone could do that should be frowned upon. Some have made the point to say this is nothing like paying respects to Nazis, so let's start there, because it is.

Japan killed millions in WWII and forced many more into slavery. Whether their actions are worse than the Holocaust is debatable, but they are certainly in the same ballpark. Now imagine if Germany had a war memorial that honored the names of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, etc. as well as all the German soldiers who died in WWI and WWII. Imagine also that this war memorial had an official museum that said the Holocaust was a lie and that Germany was unfairly attacked by the England, France and the United States. Would you, at the very least, understand the criticism of some BMW managers, if they went to said memorial, lit candles in front of the memorial, saluted it and posted it on Twitter?

Yasukuni Shrine doesn't just have a few names written in some closet somewhere; it actively promotes a pro-Imperial Japanese worldview, with a museum that claims Japan was the victim of foreign aggression and that the Chinese welcomed Japan as liberators.

Now it's true that there are other war dead, including civilians I believe, enshrined at Yasukuni, and that truly religious people have a dilemma concerning how to memorialize them. There have been, within Japan, calls for the "souls" of the war criminals to be removed from the shrine, or vice versa, to remove the political and cultural toxicity, calls that appear to be theologically feasible (if that even matters) but that the Yasukuni priests have rejected. Why? Because the Yasukuni priests are militarists who WANT to institutionalize their militarism at the heart of Japanese culture.

I get wanting to look at things as complex, and even something as awful as Yasukuni Shrine could arguably be discussed with nuance. But just sitting back and blaming the controversy on whiny social liberals is, itself, flying in the face of the rationalism and unbiased analysis that reddit intellectuals and Gamergaters like to pride themselves on. It's just a numbers game: Germany killed millions, Japan killed millions. Germany would get in trouble if they honored their Nazi past, Japan gets in trouble for honoring its militarism. They're either both okay, or both cause for some legitimate criticism.

I’ve actually been to the shrine (has anyone else in the comments gone there?) and it is a very beautiful temple.

I’ve also been aware of the controversy around it all since I went (when I was in Japan it was in the news for the prime minister of the time going there) and I can see why Chinese and Korean people are pissed as the Japanese army did unspeakably awful things and quite a lot of people weren’t prosecuted (this is the fact I’m shakiest on and I can’t remember where I read it so if someone else has any further info please post).

There’s also an attached museum which is quite eye opening as it blames America for forcing japan to attack pearl harbour and also claims japan just wanted to look after all of Asia under a Co-prosperity sphere to make everyone’s lives better... try squaring that up with the rape of nanking or unit 731

@link422007 "Tu quoque!" doesn't lessen the war crimes Japan did. This is what a lot of Japanese nationalists do; whenever you bring up Bataan/baby bayonetting/Nanjing/Unit 731/forced Korean soldiers/occupation of SE Asia, they just cry "But America nuked us, you're hypocrites!" and thus they can continue to keep up Yasukuni's near deification of the actions of the Imperial Japanese Army while denying/underplaying what they did. Amazingly, this even happens with things like mentioning their terrible treatment of the Ainu or their horrific "scientific" whaling practices.

Don't let Japan get away with honoring terrible atrocities just because they can say "America nuked us twice."

@BoilerBroJoe damnit! You stole my post and made it more eloquent in the process😞

@Glassneedles I have been there, yes. I sure as hell didn't take selfies or toss any coins into the donation box though!

Tbh its a part of history, we arnt looking down on germans for visiting auschwitz right?

@Glassneedles Haha, aw, sorry dude! If it makes you feel any better, there were several posters above me who sorta made my point too, as I was writing.

@superguy123 Does Auschwitz have a museum that denies the Holocaust, or say that the Nazis were welcomed in Poland as liberators?

@superguy123 Not the same. Auschwitz honors those killed by Germany, not German soldiers, and certainly not the German leaders.

@Darlinfan I see a limited worldview from them to be honest. If anything, all I have is pity.

@BoilerBroJoe I think you win this comment section for an actually informed and eloquent rebuttal to the 'PC gone mad' crowd. It's quite impressive how they're offended that people nowadays are offended at everything. The irony is probably lost on them.

@Yorumi Uh, vocally supporting war criminals isn't outrageous?

@CharlieSmile Yup. I’ve never heard of this location, but just from the little blurb here I can understand how it would be a sensitive topic. But I’m not about to say “OMG SJW” and other buzzwords to hide my ignorance of the subject just so I can have an almighty Opinion on something. I’ve got enough real life to worry about in my own proximity than feign outrage over folks’ legitimate reactions.

@BoilerBroJoe I was there back in 2007 and wasn’t aware of the controversy for a few days (until it was on the news as the PM went) and as I said before it was a beautiful place with a very very strange museum attached. The stuff on pre ww2 history was all well and good and I always like looking at old armour and swords but after I read “America forced Japan to attack it after it’s naked show of aggression” (or words to that effect) I couldn’t stop laughing and had to revisit all the other bits to see if I could spot any Japanese Nationalism arguments in them. Definitely eye opening as it was my first experience with seeing WW2 from a axis apologist slant.

Well, at first I thought that these "fans" are resetera users that complained that Pokémon games ONLY have TWO genders (seriously, these people are not normal).

@Kal_ i say they should burn it down & make it out to be the work some random non-existent arsonist that never gets caught.

@Tirza Is there some sort of compulsion that you have to bring up anything related to trans people the second someone says "I don't like thing?" It's eerie.

Just calm down

I love the way people complain about how their right to express themselves is taken away when the outrage is something they disagree with and when they disagree suddenly are all for demaning and talking away those people's right to express themselves.

In this case, a company should be smarter. They had to have some idea of the reaction it would get.

@Tupin That's just it, though. Japan certainly had a lot to answer for. But I am not waiting anymore for an apology that is 70+ years old with the Japanese today ignorant of their own history due to omission, there is no more use to apologize to the dead. The nuance is that Japan still has a certain disconnect with the rest of East Asia and South East Asia and the historical context maintains the distrust within Asian countries. I don't want to throw stones in glass houses, but in order for me to take China's outrage seriously, then they should look in the mirror of their own skeletons.

Yet when these points are even raised, they do so with the same deniability as the Japanese. Sure, we can all point at all these atrocities and tell them "You should apologize!", and I'm amenable but, really, China? Maybe you should:

1. Acknowledge the massacre in Tienanmen Square, the numerous deaths of the Great Leap forward

2. stop the oppression of Tibetans and Uyghurs, stop funding the Venezuelan regime

3. Apologize to many of SEA nations and get military expansionism out of the West Philippine Sea and negotiate for a free economic zone for every country surrounding it.

The Japanese may be glorifying their imperialistic past but China sure loves glorifying Mao and would let people like Jiang Zemin commit the same atrocities to their own people (massacre, organ harvesting, persecution of Falun Gong members) and suffer the same omission-remission problem that the Japanese has.

Basically I'm saying, "Look, I'm going to over you being a s***head before, but do that again and I'll smack you upside the head."

China needs to get that across.

I'm not gonna pretend that I understand the full controversial implications of this one, though I think I have some idea. Whether or not it was wise to visit the shrine to begin with isn't up to me. I do agree that the tweet in question was in poor taste and was rightfully removed.

@Yorumi The most fascinating part of all this, is the tweets that they showed barely got any attraction. A handful of likes and retweet's, nothing more nothing less.
Also doesn't help the integrity of this article is that everyone forgot about this an hour later.

People who call for boycotts these days are not even consumers of the subject they're aiming at. These are not fans, they're just people with too much spare time who enjoy being outraged.

@Baart Bro, it's Korean.

The interesting thing about this is that this should be a sobering revelation to the fact that no part of the world (or modern history) is without their own sociopolitical issues and arguments.

Like, you're free to disagree with the arguments and/or not be bothered by the outrage, but dont be so intellectually lazy as to chalk this up to just "SJW" stuff.

I've been there. Was not making a political statement for being there. Will assume the same for them.

Main-line Pokemon on Switch still day 1 buy for me.

On Memorial Day in the USA, we remember the service of people who died in wars. Out of the 1.3 million of them, I’m pretty sure some were horrible people who did awful things. But that doesn’t invalidate the concept of the holiday.

Seems fine to me, people are over reacting tbh.

@ReWane thx for the correction bro.

@CharlieSmile What I understand is that people need to stop telling others how to think and feel and act in their own lives and doings that ultimately have no bearing on them.

If someone wants to believe in stupid garbage then that's their choice, but they should not force that garbage on others or force others to act according to their garbage. And sorry if some people can't tell the difference between what's garbage and what's not, but that's not other people's problem to deal with, or at least shouldn't be.

This applies to everything in life: There's common sense and genuine kindness and decency and the like, which we should all obviously follow and live by and encourage others to follow and live by too, and then there's a bunch of idiots trying to re-write the entire Universe to fit into their blindly ignorant and dangerously extremist and nigh-on fascist and Orwellian view of what's "right" and "fair" and "equal" and "just"--largely based on a bunch of similar idiots telling them how to think and act and encouraging them to go out and "save" us all accordingly--but who literally have no clue whatsoever and are actually doing far more harm than good most of the time in their total ignorance and in forcing their insidiously-"sterilised" world view on everyone else.

Being a good human being is not the same as being a slave to a bunch of total and utter OTT PC tools or brainwashed morons or misguided twits or delusional plonkers or a bunch of ignorant extremist lefties and femin@zis and the like--just saying.

@aiden0309 - My god, it took how long til someone with some level of understanding to come in an enlighten the finger pointing.

This isn't sarcasm, but all posts previous were grey or playing the moral high ground game the internet just loves to do nowadays.

That being said, visiting a war memorial (of any kind) and announcing a national event (of any kind) to others than paying respects is equal to visiting a family member's grave for a Facebook selfie. It's tactless and not at all in good taste. But warrant a boycott? That's akin to having the selfie grave metaphor fired.

people who like to be offended, are offended, because someone did something that could have offended somebody some where. the end.

@impurekind you should probably realize, you're talking to a feminist leftist who has no interest in engaging with devil's advocate rhetoric, so ✌

koreans get mad about stuff to do with WW2 a lot, I don't know if they're right or wrong and don't care much.

It's a part of Japanese culture to visit shrines during New year's. Who cares if you're offended at something that took place over 70 years ago.

The Korean and Chinese governments use the shrine to manipulate their public. That said, this was a stupid move by those at Creatures.

@Lizuka How about you keep your offense, just like your religious beliefs, to yourself. Being offended is completely subjective and should never be the basis of any rule or law, and frankly these times there isn't enough opposition to those who would like to shape the world in line with their personal hurt feelings.

Man, people truly go out of their way to get outraged at the dumbest things these days.

Typical low-priority outrage.

@aiden0309 I really understand your feelings, I really do, but people must also understand that this shrine is not about WWII and all the evil that Japan did then. There are way more honorable dead in that shrine too that must and should not be forgotten.
Also, remember that Japan before and the Japan of today are very different countries. Japan as a whole (not withstanding the few ultra nationalist idiots) are actually ashamed and regret what happened. How long are people going to continue with this?m? We shouldn’t forget, obviously, but it’s time to move on.
But after all I really think that they shouldn’t have posted that to the official account. And I’m also sure there wasn’t any hidden reasons there either.
Like I said, we all should move on, live and let live.

I live in South Korea (have for 7 years), married into a Korean family, and have relatives who fought during the 20th century. It's hard for some people to understand what that building symbolizes because they have no personal connection to it. I get that. I never would have understood it until I moved to a country that was savagely oppressed by colonial Japan. Just like if you were living in parts of the world oppressed by Great Britain, Spain, France etc. It's ok if you don't have a cultural understanding of why something is offensive. Just don't be dismissive of the people who do.

@JayJ I think you're over simplifying it with such a crude comment. If you understood what Imperial Japan was like to China and Korea you may have a little compassion for the people who are upset by it. I'm not saying you need to be upset about it. Not at all, but I don't think you should be dismissive of the people who have real life connections to the situation.

@maruse I would be interested to know if the Japanese government has considered moving the information of the war criminals into their own building and thus leaving the honourable ones in this shrine. It may help avoid situations like this? I dunno...I do agree that the fallen should not be forgotten and it would be nice if people could remember and honour them without having this situation pop up.

@TAndvig To people in China and Korea, this is more like the equivalent of Germany having a shrine to Hitler and his Nazi supporters and a celebrity commemorating a visit. My Uncle was tortured to death by several men who are now memorialized at the Yasukuni shrine. His whole family was rounded up and shot. To me, and others still in Asia, the shrine's very existence is an affront.

The Japanese government has not and will not apologize for its atrocities in WW2. I can't do anything about that. I can eXpress my displeasure at others visiting it.

@maruse Japan is ashamed? Really? If so why have they never apologized? Germany has. Even Italy has.

@Nintendofan83 Well the fact remains that they seem to have displaced their rage at what they are upset about. It seems like there is controversy over the actual shrine due to a war memorial, thing is I don't see how someone simply visiting that location can be bad simply for having done so.

I'm not Asian, but I think I understand. This shrine is in Japan. Shinto followers believe that shrines literally provide homes for souls of the dead. Doing this for Japanese soldiers is a way of honoring them. But including Chinese & Korean civilians is like you're trying to trap their spirits in the country that killed them.

Today would have been my father's 64th birthday, but he died 20 years ago due to a hospital's neglect. Now imagine if the hospital, without my family's consent, built a memorial to my father. A memorial that portrayed him as a martyr who served the hospital instead of the victim of their screw-up. Would you all say I had no right to be offended?

But I'm not boycotting Pokemon. If getting Lyme Disease because of the Pokewalker didn't make me quit, nothing will.

@JayJ Again, that's your opinion and I'm not taking that away from you. My only response was from the fact you implied being upset with this situation is dumb. For some people, the mere fact the war criminals (internationally recognized by the UN I might add), are in the shrine sends mixed messages. I think if the war criminals were removed from it, many in China and Korea wouldn't react at all because there are cemeteries here, too. People visit them all the time without anger. Anyway, in the future, I hope you aren't as critical of people who have connections to something you don't. That's all I want to say.

@EvrgrnCmln Wikipedia is no the best source but Japan has actually apologized several times to Korea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

@Nintendofan83 I am honestly not taking this that personally, I just think the whole situation is a bit silly in the context that it is in and that is all I had to say about the matter. As for the actual thing that people seem to be upset about, the shrine that is, I think that is just another debate in it's own and one that I have no real part in. I just think condemning people over visiting something like that is out of line.

@EvrgrnCmln Who say Japan has never apologized? They have actually do that several times. That you accept it or not is an entirely different matter.

@EvrgrnCmln Good comparison. There are still some grandmothers and great-grandmothers alive in Korea who were "comfort women" and they have a legacy that is well documented here. To them, the Japanese were like the Nazis and this Shrine (because it has the war criminals in it) is hard to reconcile with.

@Nintendofan83 I also agree that the offending people should be removed or at the very least moved to a different place. But I'm not knowledgeable enough in the matter to know if that is possible or easily done.

@JayJ Just out of curiosity (no judgement here at all), are you fine with people visiting any controversial place? Like, white people visiting a KKK shrine, a Nazi shrine etc. Is it just a personal freedom issue for you that people should be allowed to do whatever without being judged for it?

I'm a white Canadian so I don't understand the pain my Korean family feels over this issue. I just do my best to listen, support, love, and educate. I rarely give my own thoughts about it, especially being a high school history teacher.

Could it be they were using the locale for inspiration in their next installments?

I'm just going to leave this YouTube link here if you really want to know what Japan did in WW2
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lnAC-Y9p_sY

@Nintendofan83 Honestly I think things like that hold a special need for historical perspective. Yes, the things they represent are bad, but that is exactly why it is great to visit them. To me I can best relate to this with the time I visited a concentration camp survivor. He had this tattoo that he got in the camp for identification and he still kept it on his wrist to that day as a reminder of what he had to go through and overcome. He was an amazing person, and having visited someone like that in person just really put into perspective the hardships that people had to go through, and the kind of things that were done to people.

Having historical monuments that represent a bad time in history have a historical value to remind us of how those things existed and the impact that they had. It is better to remember and learn than it is to forget and repeat.

@Tirza I know my country has problems and had them in the past (even with WWII) and don't systematically deny/underplay them like Japan does. The problem is the tu quoque fallacies Japan engages in. Yes, America committed tragedies and was racist, what of it? How does that make Japan doing it and denying it suddenly okay?

Good luck with that

Here are 2 serious problems that should NEVER have any relationship; the first one was the employees who, well, in short, did something inappropriate in an "important" place, they really made the mistake and they must take responsibility; and secondly one, the thousands of people asking for boycott against Pokemon for this incident, and this, really, is completely illogical and excuse the word, people 'airheaded'; because here the company is not responsible for what their employees do, yes, they affect their image, but it should not be a reason to blame it just because they have 2 irresponsible employees, come on, anywhere there are irresponsible people, that's not why I give total responsibility to "who or what" is in charge of that irresponsible person; So simple, as for example, here, in my country, people / tourists from abroad arrive and 2 of those people do an unpleasant act, I will not blame an entire country or I won´t boycott for the irresponsibility of those 2 irresponsible, right?

Well, these topics-issues are somewhat difficult to discuss, but, it is better to take things with ease.

What were they thinking??

I am deleting Y, Moon, PokeDex 3D and whatever other Pokemon games I have on my 3DS.

People are not mad enough about this! BOYCOTT!!

Nice. One company is ruining the reputation of the franchise & the other company is ruining the reputation of the developers.

Well, this article made me want to watch some Anime.

I love the complete dolts in this comment thread throwing around SJW, etc., like these guys visited the Meiji Shrine or something. Imagine if some VW employees visited a shrine to the Third Reich and excitedly posted about it on Twitter. Would you call me a snowflake for considering that obtuse and offensive? Learn some history and respect it before you run your little mouths off online. Christ almighty.

More people getting offended which they’re entitled to do, however I’m so tired of all the callings for boycotts. I’m an American and am surrounded by overly sensitive people daily about stuff that isn’t even relevant. I just think if the complaints and hurt feelings were handled more maturely I might respect people’s feelings more??

Nintendo Life. Please please please do not join the trend of reporting what a few people on Twitter are saying is news.

@TAndvig I cant help feeling you've not understood the story or my comment. It doesn't bother me personally but I remember the first time a Japanese prime minister visited the shrine, protestors in Korea publicly severed their own pinkie fingers. Some bad things went down during WWII and there are still some serious grudges held. It really isnt impossible to imagine war between Japan and China or Korea again. I think you're confusing this with "political correctness" and that's a bad analogy. This about history and regional tensions, not people getting offended about big boobs in JRPGs.

If I boycott every product just because their creator or producer has any political, religious, or philosophical belief I don't agree with I probably wouldn't be buying anything.

That said, responsibility needs to be taken on Creatures Inc part. At least something to show they're trying to simply act like the tweet was ever posted since deleting it.

@idrawrobots To keep it PG, Japan did some very unkind things to their neighbors. Google "Nanking Massacre."

@Nintendofan83 I think the problem they have with these apologies is that Japan also doesn't acknowledge or downplays certain events like the Nanking Massacre. Many of their textbooks skip most of the war and only include the atomic bomb. They also rarely acknowledge the slaves they kept for certain dirty reasons. It's unfortunate that some of these women are still alive Japan refuses to acknowledge what they did to them.

@maruse Well yeah they apologize, but they deny certain events or downplay them which doesn't help their case. If I'm not mistaken, Shinzo Abe was the first Prime Minister to publicly acknowledge "comfort women" and the two countries still argue over what happened in Nanking. Outside of that I admit I'm no expert, but I can still see why some people feel the way they do when some survivors from the war are still alive. I wish the three countries could have a better relationship.

@theberrage

Few people. Lol are you frakking kidding me. Venture outside the cave why don't you.

I've actually been to this shrine (although we couldn't go in) and the World War II museum next to it. It certainly gives a different view of the war than what you'd get from our history books. And while I do think they really present some things out of context to make Japan look better, they also have some valid points about what western nations were doing in the far east that drove them to war. And to be fair, we still honor General Curtis LeMay, who orchestrated the fire bombings of Japan with the expressed goal of killing as many Japanese civilians as possible.

@dethkult As someone who thinks that there is some merit to the complaints, I wouldn’t call this anything much more than a minor controversy. I couldn’t find anything relating to this under the #pokémon hashtag on twitter, the twitter posts on this article have a low retweet and “heart” amount (is that what they call it on Twitter, I don’t use it), there are only 3 articles on this subject, and I can’t find any YouTube videos about this. But, hey I’d like to be proven wrong, I just really couldn’t find anything that would really make it a major controversy.

@Mrtoad

Have you checked the Korean and Chinese equivalent of Twitter? I haven't. Even fans thought boycotting is a bit much, so it's entirely possible that the outrage is from non-fans.

IMO, controversy is controversy. By saying just a minor one is a little bit dismissive about whether these outrage is sensible or not.

Not to you specifically, but I just don't understand the effort some people went through just to complain about people complaining. If you won't bother learning more about why it is what it is, why not just keep to yourself and play games instead of whining about this site/the author/people who have legitimate thoughts about this.

@dethkult Paragraph 1: Good point
Paragraph 2: By a minor controversy, I meant in terms of popularity (at least on the English speaking web), not whether it deserves to exist or not.

To add on to my previous post: I would consider the recent John Lasseter rehiring to be a minor controversy (as I fell like only a small amount of people are talking about it), but the concern that has raised from it is totally legitimate.

@CrazyMetroid love you too, bb 😘

I noticed that the original post by creatures Inc is not even translated. I doubt Koreans and Chinese can read Japanese. They probably saw the smiling faces and instantly got triggered like a bunch of ** (insert low intelligence insult here) **

Looks like kids who are doing the Tweeting where never around when the wars happened... and if they're so offended by Japanese why follow Japanese culture on Twitter?

From what I know Japanese did some nasty things during the war in China and occupied Korea for a long time; but because Americans needed Japan as a buffer against USSR, Japanese war criminals weren't dealt with as harshly as Nazis after the war. This predictably made Chinese and Koreans very sensitive about this topic. Add to that Asian people usually being a lot more open about their prejudices than western people and you have a mess.
It's also why I think World Conqueror X doesn't feature the Rising Sun logo as well as no swastikas, despite being an ostensibly WW2 game.

@penamiguel92 Whatever reason unless they went to borrow the toilet, people won't be happy with it. It's like doing a Hitler salute to people who's family were murdered by Nazi.

@dethkult - I think there is a reason why people are complaining about complainers. Cause the latter has happened so much over the most mundane things (such as AC being sexist) and/or the hyperbolic reaction to changes (such as Marvel's current "replacement" heroes) over the passed couple years.

So what I am seeing is the end result of crying too much wolf. People are downplaying and dismissing the concern entirely and throw the SJW tag on it and carry on, cause almost everywhere there has been complaints in video games media it stems from the progressive minded. So something worth the conversation feels tired to so many, especially when you got people "TL;DR"-ing any counterpoints either direction.

Which that's a concern, cause stuff like this actually warrants the context to understand that reaction. However, it becomes so inundated with everyone's personal politics that the conversation shifts from what it should have been to self-righteous pissing contests.

Was Pokémon even officially released in China? I know the Game Boy handhelds never did and I don’t think any of the earlier gen games did either. Maybe China was introduced to Pokémon by the anime series. If so, people in China should boycott the brand for not introducing Pokémon in their country the proper way.

"Please apologize immediately!"
Apologizing won't change anything - and judging by those pictures, they're clearly not sorry. I still dont really understand the significance of this, I don't really need to, but I am surprised people are getting riled up over a couple of happy people. The location barely matters.

@dethkult haha!! Venture out of the cave? Does this saying now mean stay inside and glue my face to twitter ? Sorry I don’t want to spend my life chasing likes and status points from narcissistic know it alls.

@ThatNyteDaez nothing more genuine than a forced apology lol. The Twitterati love demanding apologies but I wonder if they’re ever satisfied?

@ThatNyteDaez I'm guessing the people demanding an apology are not gamers, but activists that watch this shrine, and if anyone noteworthy is seen there, they pounce. I agree that the people in the picture, and Japan as a whole is not sorry, so the apology would not be sincere anyway. But the Korean and Chinese looking for an apology I am not sure are concerned about sincerity. They are looking for a weapon. If a country officially apologizes for something, the next thing will be demands for reparations, and I think that's what this is officially about. The United States also will not apologize to the Native Americans or admit wrongdoing, just that some unfortunate things happened (kind of like Nanking). Why are we so cold hearted? Because if we apologize, there will be nonstop demands to give land back. How much land? The midwest? All of it? Who knows! Which is why we leave it at, "Golly gee, it was a sad time." So yes, Japan did some pretty terrible things, but when China, still ruled by the same government that killed by best estimates 40-65 million of it's own people after WWII, comes demanding an apology, what could Japan possibly do to make things better? Well, other than to tell China to get <<language not appropriate for Nintendo Life>>

@impurekind
I'm not watching your dang video.
no means no, dang it.

I'm going to put your profile on ignore now.
I'll be moved to report you if you @ me again.

bye now.

"Ruin" pokemon? Seriously? I'm quite ignorant on the history or significance of said shrine besides the information within this article. Maybe it's just me but I dont think this could in any shape or form ruin the franchise these people work on. I know these people are just trying to say they won't be able to play a game made by people that do such "dishonorable" things. I think beyond committing actual crimes these folks shouldn't worry so much about what these game devs do and much less let it bother them. At the end of the day they are just people with different taste and personalities, just let them be.

@TossedLlama I hear ya on that one too.

@maruse Yes, 'qualified' apologies, followed by a denial of the events for which an apology was offered, followed by attempts to whitewash or gloss over the entire affair. I taught there - the average government approved textbook at -best- labels the events of WW2 as an 'unfortunate misunderstanding' and at worst paints the Japanese as being hard done by by post war negotiations. Not a one of the 8 approved texts we used mentioned any of the events for which Japan has 'apologised' and the general populace is unaware it ever happened. Not one of my students has ever been able to tell me how they actually got involved in the war. 75% didn't believe me when I told them that Pearl Harbor had been an act of aggression. They thought that America had attacked Japan first and Pearl Harbor was retaliation.

Compare Germany's position as regards the Nazis.

The Yasukuni shrine portrays the Japanese WW2 war criminals as heroes not because of an oversight but because that's how Japan views its role in WW2. They haven't been removed from the shrine because Japan would need to explain why to its citizens. It doesn't want to.

Considering my grandfather spend some of his youth in a japanese prison camp during WW2 I can see why people are upset, many dutch women were also used a comfort women which was sweeped under the rug same very much lack of tact on creatures part.

@penamiguel92 I like the fact that you just put a placeholder for a low-intelligent system because the Imperialists whose souls are held in the shrine, according to the Japanese, believe that Koreans and Chinese people are subhumans

I don't know much about the controversy, and what little I can understand from the comments and article, it's on the lower end of bad things companies can do (granted, things like attacking and demonizing fans are at the bottom ofthe barrel, but it's way worse).

The fact that this got posted at all is weird to me. It feels like one of those "So-and-So is at this really cool place" kind of posts that I see with Nintendo Minute occasionally. Either they didn't know, or the PR manager didn't properly estimate people's reactions. These guys work of Pokemon, a massive all-ages franchise with a big kids audience. It feels so odd that something like this would fly under the radar if there was even tertiary knowledge of any problems with the location.

The Creatures, Inc. developers were probably looking for spirit orbs...