On October 28, Sony revealed the launch commercial forPS5with an international version and two Japanese versions, and it’s not hard to notice that the latter both have way fewer cuts with black people than the international one. The PS5 launch international trailer is 1-minute long, while the Japanese trailer has two versions; a 30-second cut, and a “long” version, but even the long version is conspicuously 10 seconds shorter than the international one. If you watch all three side-by-side, you’ll notice most of the cuts missing from both Japanese versions are the ones with black people.
The first scene in the international version is a black little girl watching a space launch on TV, followed by a shot of a black astronaut in training, hinting that it’s her grown-up version. Both shots are missing from the Japanese versions. Then, at 00:28 in the normal version, you’ve got a short cut of again, a black astronaut, this time in zero G. That one is also missing from the Japanese version. That black person in the snow a few seconds later? Gone in the Japanese commercials. The sole shot with a black person left in the Japanese version is the very short cut during the space launch, with the camera trembling. Oh, and that Middle Eastern-looking guy in the desert? Also gone from the Japanese version.
As a black person, it’s not like I’m surprised by this turn of events; I just find this situation hilarious. It’s quite a fun coincidence that all the shots removed to make the commercials shorter ended up being those with black people. It could be on purpose, it could be a coincidence; it doesn’t necessarily surprise me either way. But I haven’t laughed that much at a similar case since my first time seeing theStar Wars: The Force Awakens’Chinese poster and itstry-hard attempt to hide John Boyega.
In addition, Japan has pretty complex discrimination issues; like, how actual Japanese people are discriminated against because of their surnames. Or the racism towards Koreans, Chinese, Brazilian Japanese, etc. And then of course, black people. Not every Japanese person thinks this way, obviously, but a lot of Japanese people tend to admire white Caucasian people from the United States and Western Europe, with beauty standards inclining towards pale skin. That’s one of the reasons which led to that Nissan commercial, whereNaomi Osakaappeared considerably whiter than how she actually looks. With that in mind, it’s not so much of a coincidence that there are more white people than black in the PS5 Japanese launch commercials.
At the same time, it’s not like Japan is still completely under every racist stereotype. In fact, there are multiple black artists in the Japanese media space. Obviously, we’ve got Naomi Osaka orCrystal Kay. Those of you who watched Japanese TV in the late 2000s definitely know aboutEnka singer Jero,too. We have personalities likeIke Nwala, who shows Japanese kids every morning on TV Tokyo that black people actually exist. We also have Avu chan and Ruri chan from the popular bandQueen Bee. It’s not like Japan is still completely unused to black people at this point. However, it looks like the Sony Japanese marketing team didn’t entertain the idea of having some melanin mixed in their commercials.
PS5 Launch Trailer International Version, Japanese Versions
Lastly, I’d also add that I find it interesting (and in some ways funny) how Sony and other game studios have been profusely pushing black people and characters in trailers and footage these past months ever since BLM exploded. That was something noticeable with the trailers released during the “Summer of Gaming” time frame, but this situation falls in contrast to that. I’m obviously against all forms of discrimination and support BLM, but to me the marketing pretty much became the racism-free version of “I have black friends,” which only goes so far to actually address these issues. Especially when we got to a point whereSony released a PS4 theme about it.We want more action than words.
