‘Street Fighter’ Developer Capcom Announces They Will Now Consider Hiring “Non-Japanese Directors” To Their Board
In a rather decisive shift for the company’s modus operandi, Street Fighter and Mega Man series developer Capcom has confirmed that they are now actively considering “non-Japanese” individuals for positions on their board of directors.
This development in Capcom’s hiring process was first detailed by the company during the Q&A portion of their 45th annual shareholders meeting, the English transcript of which was uploaded to their official website on July 22nd.
Asked by one attendee, “You’ve submitted a female candidate for external director, however all your internal directors are male. Please tell me what you are doing to increase the ratio of female managers internally,” the Monster Hunter studio affirmed, “Regarding diversity of our board of directors, we select director candidates who are able to oversee management of the company and offer appropriate advice, while considering the skills and characteristics required in accordance with our management strategy, and the balance of each individual’s career history, insight, and experience.”
Continuing, Capcom then revealed, “Also note that, while our internal directors are currently all male, in addition to women, going forward we will also consider non-Japanese directors.”
Turning back to the original question, the company added, “Regarding female managers, currently 21.2% of employees are female and 13.6% of our core talent is female. We are aiming to bring the percentage of female managers up to 15%.”
“Looking ahead,” they concluded, “we believe we will be able to see more female directors by broadening our scope and increasing the ratio of female managers.”
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While Capcom’s statement does not specify that they currently have any plans to do so, one particular worry raised by their above declaration is the prospect that any amount of those non-Japanese individuals considered may be those same ones responsible for the currently deteriorating Western video game industry.
And this doesn’t just apply to Western developers’ unhealthy obsession with identity politics and the absolute damage said ideology inherently does to any product it touches.
From games so unoptimized that they eat up 90% of a player’s hard drive, to the proud promotion of predatory microtransactions, to the absolute disregard for the legacy of the properties shown for, the West’s corporate greed has been a driving force in the industry’s decline.
And that’s not to say the Japanese industry is without it’s problems – For example, players regularly offer up complaints regarding local developers’ over-reliance on gacha mechanics, and most are unhappy with the hands-off process in which they approach the worldwide localizations of their titles.
But to imagine those in the West who outright hate the video game medium’s core audience of players, seek to use every single title as a platform for their performative activism, and view gameplay as something to be tacked on at the end of development, gaining a spot of genuine influence within Capcom?
One shudders to think at just how low they could drag down the entire company’s output.
At current, Capcom’s next title, Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, is set to hit shelves on September 6th.
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