At the end of October, news broke that Mega Man creator and video game luminary Keiji Inafune had left Capcom after 20-some years with the company. Inafune said at the time that he could’ve just sat back to become a leading figure in the industry, but he explained that that is the same as death for a creator. “As long as you are a creator, you cannot settle down,” he said in his blog post (translated by Andriasang).
Having studied the Japanese language and culture for a few years myself, I thought about this a bit and had a conversation with my friend Evan, who works as a translator and tour guide in Japan. First and foremost, we agreed that for anyone in a position like his to decide to leave a company is, in the traditional Japanese business structure, a big deal. In Japan, typically once you start with a company you’re there for life. The hopping around we do in America isn’t nearly as common, although younger employees aren’t as deeply instilled with that idea as older generations were.
Evan, whose translation work often is in the world of Japanese animation, compared Inafune’s decision to that business. Employers are squeezing lower level employees, making them contractors and such because “times are tough” for the industry. In anime, starting salaries for new employees are abysmal and don’t even qualify as living wages, even if the industry is trying to “do the right thing” and give people jobs.
Inafune is an innovator, and it’s clear he feels the current model is flawed and he finds his position frustrating. While Inafune doesn’t lament overseas development doing as well as it has, he points out problems in the Japanese industry’s model, saying that “If you succeed, you don’t get credit, and if you fail, it’s your fault. The game industry isn’t at a level where it can value creators and raise them up.”
Evan explains that animation is the same way. There’s little recognition for a designer who works hard. Everyone succeeds together, even if individuals fail alone. The world outside – Western developers – embody a more creator-focused model (let’s not talk about Activision), and employees at the Japanese companies realize there’s no benefit to trying hard.
Inafune’s departure is a consequence of the disease that seems to be slowly killing much of the Japanese game industry, and I think it clearly shows just how dire things are over there. If Japanese developers want to climb back into a place where they can compete with Western developers, things have to change. Inafune might well be taking the first step toward that.
Creators like Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez, Child of Eden) and Swery (Deadly Premonition) show us what a Japanese creator can do when given proper freedom, but too often it sounds like those are being shut down in favor of another mechanically identical dating sim, RPG or Monster Hunter game. I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but not with conditions as they are. Maybe we need a brash, young mind with a fresh outlook. You know, like the inventor of Pac-Man.
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