Tekken series producer and director Katsuhiro Harada isn’t known for pulling any punches when it comes to addressing anything that doesn’t sit well with him—and that includes a new Japanese ordinance that would limit gaming time for kids.
This new set of rules, called the Net Game Addiction Measures Ordinance in place within the Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku, will prevent anyone under the age of 18 from playing video games for more than one hour per day.
This doesn’t just apply to online games, either. It will actually limit all gaming to one hour, or 90 minutes on holidays, across the board. It will also limit smartphone use for kids under 18, but that isn’t what Harada was raging about.
In one of his famous Twitter rants last night, Harada called out the parenting techniques of those who backed the ordinance, claiming that this wasn’t a wise decision.
“The new Kagawa law goes into effect on Today,” Harada said. “A parent who did NOT grow up wisely found a scapegoat for not being able to educate their children wisely.”
He went on to disprove all of his followers who tried to claim it was an April Fools’ Day prank because it was April 1 in Japan at the time, saying that the ordinance was already going into effect. Doubling down on his stance, Harada also claimed the people behind this ruling “have a boring brain that can’t give kids great ideas and inspiration.”
Harada did clarify that this rule wouldn’t affect game sales very much since every game that sells millions of units usually does so by hitting big in Western markets like the U.S. and Europe, citing Tekken 7, which only sold four percent of its five million copies in Japan. What scares him is the effect it could have on negatively impacting gaming culture in Japan.
Harada ended the main bulk of his rant by saying that many communities are “already angry,” but will have no effect on changing this. Rather, he thinks some of the other provinces may agree and follow suit if any positive results are shown.
