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[Shining Sunshine]

read up on how the entertainment industry treats pregnant women and creators. Joss Whedon nearly destroyed a woman's career because she wanted to have a child.

EDIT - it's also not a matter of black and white. It's the D-student lording his accomplishments over someone who got an F.

It's a bit different in Japan where housewives is a part of the culture.

The same Japanese friend I'm talking about has a housewife as a part of an agreement that he would be the only one working.

 

[Aaronrules380]

what you call "supporting and raising awareness" I call talking over and grabbing for page clicks instead of actually supporting anyone. Allies care more about getting credit than doing anything.

You asked me earlier what I think we should do. Well, a good start is stepping back. A good ally is more like an intern. Put more women in the role of reviewing games as well as making them; I don't mean op ed pieces. That Polygon review of Metal Gear Solid 5? Let's hear what a woman has to say about Quiet instead of Michael McWhertor.

And let's stop framing conversations like this in the sense of "at least we're not THOSE guys." That's divisive and nationalistic.

I think that's grossly over simplifying the problem. I might want a women reviewing a certain game, but what if there's no women who is available to do so at the moment? What if the women who are available simply don't want to? I've seen female reviewers before, and I've seen them review big games. The issues underlying the gender gap in the games industry are far more complex than "They refuse to give women good roles". There are a lot of underlying social stigma, not to mention underlying cultural issues that is often completely unintentional. I'd be very surprised if the amount of women applying for jobs in the game industry, either as developers, or reviewers is anywhere near the amount of men. If the amount of women trying to get these jobs is half of the amount of men, then logically fair hiring processes would result in a 75% male workforce if we assume that the quality on average is going to be the same regardless of gender, There's also the fact that the generation that grew up more accepting of female gamers is also largely still not in the work force.

 

[Saikyo]

So Face was some placeholder character but in the end she liked the design? interesting...

Shame that we didnt had the goblin character or the dark skinned woman.

About how Japan is terrible for woman I dont need to say what was already posted : \ , hope someday she makes a fighting game again.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Good read! Thanks for sharing.
Japan is so backwards sometimes, goddamn.

I wasn't familiar with this game, but I can't help but notice how, ahem, tasteful the art is compared to most fighting games... I wonder why that is.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

it's also not a matter of black and white. It's the D-student lording his accomplishments over someone who got an F.

More like a C+ getting shit by not trying harder while the dropout deals meth behind the bleachers but everyone thinks he is "Cool".

The adverserial climate that women in the japanese gaming industry endure are culturally pervasive and socially tacit. It's still has a lot of catching up to do. But it being a cultural facet, it will also take a long time.

 

[Cheesecakebobby]

Still sounds better than other industries in Japan. There's always academia but that's still generally a boy's club.

 

[Nanashrew]

Aya Kyogoku was the co-director of Animal Crossing New Leaf, a game that sold millions of copies and has a large percentage of female fans. It's almost as if women know how to appeal to women, which leads more people to buy games and thus make more money. Who would've thunk it?

And she's now the series director. She also brought up in the E3 interview that meetings have been more equal amounts of men and women these days. She played a big part in that with her role in New Leaf and how having men and women working together you can achieve amazing things.

 

[El Sloth]

It's a little heartening to hear that ASW's CEO was so supportive and ready to break taboos by making a woman a project lead at least. Good to hear that the Guilty Gear team was so supportive as well. Good on them. Maybe we'll see a slow shift in the mindset in the future.

I hope we eventually see another promising project from ASW with a woman as the lead.

Is she no longer part of Arc System Works?

No, she's in Singapore doing... something. The interview doesn't get into any specifics.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Japan needs feminism.

Japan needs a lot, from a social standpoint, but Japan needs feminism for sure.

But this is also a global issue, so saying Japan needs it isn't meant to single it out.

I am not Japanese and will definitely never work in Japan, but I encourage social growth wherever it seems needed. And it seems needed to me.

Congratulations to her.

 

[Nirolak]

It's a little heartening to hear that ASW's CEO was so supportive and ready to break taboos by making a woman a project lead at least. Good to hear that the Guilty Gear team was so supportive as well. Good on them. Maybe we'll see a slow shift in the mindset in the future.

I hope we eventually see another promising project from ASW with a woman as the lead.


No, she's in Singapore doing... something. The interview doesn't get into any specifics.

She works for Gumi Singapore supervising both art direction and game design for several titles: https://sg.linkedin.com/pub/emiko-iwasaki/50/505/a3

 

[El Sloth]

She works for Gumi Singapore supervising both art direction and game design for several titles: https://sg.linkedin.com/pub/emiko-iwasaki/50/505/a3

Cool. Mobile games huh? That's to be expected I suppose. This is pretty rad too:

• UN Women Girls2Pioneers ambassador
• Invited to the United Nations' ITU event Girls in ICT Day as one of the few women who have succeeded in the gaming industry in Japan.

Here's hoping she one day tries console (or even PC) game development again. Battle Fantasia was a cool, if flawed, experiment.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

It is considered a shame for a man to work under woman because many people think "men first, ladies second".

In Japan, there is a thinking that the important work is meant for the men, while the women are responsible for smaller tasks. Original projects are regarded as important works because it is something developers aspire to do. Because I’m a woman director for an original project, a lot of people thought that I broke some taboos. This was not something that was acceptable to many people.

This is really unfortunate, but not surprising. But...

I was able to work in Arc System Works for a long time because the CEO, the Guilty Gear team and some passionate colleagues treat me as just a developer, not as a girl. But for most people, experienced women and my age are not welcome in the workplace. This is why I am interested to go to other countries, I’m looking for something fun.

This is awesome of Arc System Works. Hearing about exceptions like them is great, and gives hope that a similar mindset could become more prevalent, at least in the games industry to start.

There are some pretty unacceptable things she talks about, and itès pretty mind-boggling that things are still like this.

 

[Tain]

Just adding to the chorus but this was a really nice interview.

 

[Sakujou]

It might be related to the phenomena where Japanese women are expected to only work until they get married. Look up "office lady" and "pink collar".

this. japanese social relationships are quite hard to understand with european/western understanding.

a friend of mine told me, once she has a boyfriend and gets married, she would love to retire since its the wish of her husband.

so they rarely oppose that opinion. but there are more and more girls, who simply ignore the whole "getting" married thing. this is one of the reasons why japan has these days these kind of social problems as less kids and less real sex.

see this article for a better insight:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex