Following Fan Outrage, Assassin's Creed Shadows Is Being Investigated By The Japanese Government

After many years of fans being extremely vocal in their desire for the history-hopping series to visit Feudal Japan, is finally set to deliver this later this year. While the announcement of — then called — was initially well-received, the game has been the subject of plenty of backlash and controversy since its first story trailer. A petition, which has now reached over 80,000 signatures as of the time of writing, has accused Ubisoft of having a «lack of respect for Japanese history and culture» and has demanded that the game be canceled or at least delayed until the studio has shown ""

While most of this backlash had previously been from fans of the series, the Japanese government is getting involved, represented by Satoshi Hamada. Hamada took to X with a series of posts to announce that he had been contacted regarding concerns about the game's portrayal of the country and its people and intends to bring it before the Japanese Diet, which is the country’s legislative body. Hamada specifically noted the concerns surrounding the potential "" in the depiction of one of the game's protagonists, Yasuke.

Yasuke was a black African man who served Oda Nobunaga, but most of his life is still shrouded in mystery with very little documentation surrounding him. Therefore, Hamada notes that he will be examining on his portrayal in the game following Ubisoft's marketing addressing Yasuke as the series' first playable character based on a real historical figure.

The first trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows reveals its release date, dual protagonists, and the first inklings of a story. Here’s what to expect.

Hamada continued to criticize Ubisoft for not admitting to its mistakes, addressing "” in the gameplay video, and mistakenly including Chinese subtitles rather than Japanese, something that the studio has yet to address. Hamada also expressed concerns that AI may have been used in the creation of the game to a negative effect. AI is already a controversial aspect in the