Ever since Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows was announced, it has been the subject of public debate. Largely, that debate has unfortunately centered around one of the game’s deuteragonists, Yasuke—an actual historical figure whose presence a chunk of online racists take issue with anyway.
But another controversy has erupted around Shadows, and it’s a much more sensitive, layered, and complex one. It has to do with the game’s treatment and representation of Japan’s shrines, and it’s become such a big deal that Japan’s prime minister has gotten involved.
What’s the Controversy Around Shrines in Shadows?
About a month prior to Assassin Creed Shadows’ release, player footage was released which included the destruction of the interior of a Shinto shrine, including the altar and sacred objects. The backlash was more intense because the shrine depicted is a real place: Itatehyozu Shrine in the city of Himeji in Japan’s Hyogo prefecture.
As translated by Automaton, officials from the shrine announced they would be “taking action.” Reporters asked if Ubisoft had ever approached officials about using the shrine in the game, and they responded, “No, if they had contacted us, we would have refused.”
Fast forward to March 19, a day before Shadows‘ release. Hiroyuki Kada, a politician who represents Itatehyozu Shrine’s district, raised the topic in front of prime minister Shigeru Ishiba. “I fear that allowing players to attack and destroy real-world locations in the game without permission could encourage similar behavior in real life,” Kada said. “Shrine officials and local residents are also worried about this. Of course, freedom of expression must be respected, but acts that demean local cultures should be avoided.”
Ishiba wondered how to legally address the issue before continuing, “Defacing a shrine is out of the question—it is an insult to the nation itself. When the Self-Defense Forces were deployed to Samawah, Iraq, we ensured they studied Islamic customs beforehand. Respecting the culture and religion of a country is fundamental, and we must make it clear that we will not simply accept acts that disregard them.”
As a result, Ubisoft removed the ability to damage shrines in a day one patch for Shadows. Ubisoft has been apologizing for its many cultural slip-ups since June of last year, emphasizing that it worked with “external consultants and historians.” It’s worth noting that Shadows was made by Ubisoft’s Quebec office. Having your experts on Japanese culture be “external,” instead of on your actual team, easily leads to a lack insider knowledge. That mistake has been dogging Ubisoft for nearly a year now.
But is this controversy an overreaction? Is it blown out of proportion? Or is there something else happening?
Is the Controversy Just Politics?
Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ shrine controversy has elicited an overwhelming response from the game’s (Western) fan base, including some reporters. They point out that you beat the crap out of the Pope in Assassin’s Creed II. Or else that, in Valhalla, you can raid, say, St Albans—an actual cathedral in England. And so on, and so forth.
This assumes those who are upset about Shadows’ initial treatment of shrines care about Assassin’s Creed as a phenomenon. But the politicians worried about Shadows are largely conservative—and Americans should know better than anyone how conservative politicians like to drum up a culture war to earn political points.
The larger Japanese populace, on the other hand, doesn’t care about this controversy at all. In fact, Shadows was the third best-selling game on Amazon Japan last week. People have popped up on social media to confirm that the controversy is a right-wing talking point, something most people aren’t even discussing.
That doesn’t mean that everyone who bring up concerns are necessarily playing for political points, however. I genuinely think something else is at play here.
Japan’s Shrine and Temple Defacement Issue
Ever since Japan reopened to tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been facing issues with overtourism. And one huge aspect of that is tourists’ disrespectful conduct toward shrines and temples. In 2023, a Canadian teenager carved his name into a temple in Nara, Japan that’s a UNESCO heritage site. A year later, a Chilean tourist posted a video to social media where she did pull-ups on a torii gate, which was considered deeply offensive.
In fact, on Sunday, March 23, the Watazumi Shrine on Tsushima Island released an official announcement saying that “a grave and unforgivable act of disrespect [was] committed by foreigner(s).” The shrine officials therefore decided to ban all visitors except for congregants and worshippers, effective immediately. Watazumi Shrine is notable for appearing in Ghost of Tsushima.
When officials from the Itatehyozu Shrine raised concerns around Shadows last year, this is likely what they were thinking about. While the vast majority of tourist treat these sites with the respect they’re due, it only takes one dumb teenager to deface a temple that’s been pristinely kept for thousands of years, and there have been enough isolated incidents across the country to raise eyebrows.
The shrine controversy is complicated—and, frankly, more complicated than the tenor of our discourse often allows, especially when the game in question already has a louder, dumber one ringing in Americans’ ears. The result is people blowing up some writer’s thread because Ezio almost killed the Pope, so how could this be any different (“idiot!”).
But as Ubisoft has learned the hard way over the last year, context matters—cultural context, as well as temporal context. Gamers should keep that in mind, too.