Pokémon Company Under Scrutiny Amid Heightened Cultural Sensitivity in Hong Kong

In the last decade, there has been a failing presence of Japanese games in the entertainment software industry; however, the latest launch of Pokémon Go has become a global craze in just a few days since the game was released. A spin-off of the long running Pokémon series, this immensely popular installment is a location-based augmented reality mobile game. Making use of the mobile device’s GPS and camera of mobile devices, the game allows users to experience digital game play in a real world environment.

This worldwide phenomenon would not have been made possible without localization. Due to great cultural differences between Japan and other countries, the business of localization is not merely a process of literal translations, but rather, involves complicated alterations in order to retain the original user experience with added local cultural vibes. In recent events, localization has proved to not be a smooth process after all.

In celebration of The Pokémon Company’s 20^th anniversary, a new pair of video games, Pokémon Sun and Moon will be released by the end of 2016. For the first time ever, this console series would be available in traditional and simplified Chinese, aiming to be distributed in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Up until now, Pokémon creatures have used different names among those three regions to reflect local language. However, the franchise has planned to unify them in this new game installment. Originally translated as 比卡超 in Hong Kong, it now shares the same translation as Mainland China -皮卡丘(Pí kǎ qiu). While the Mandarin pronunciation sounds similar to the global name Pikachu, when read in Cantonese (Bei Ka Yau), it sounds nothing alike. Since the announcement, dozens of protesters have gathered at the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong, threating to boycott Nintendo if the company refuses their demands. Many emphasized that although it is disappointing to see name changes in characters, it is more outraging that local culture and language is being threatened. Although this language unification might simply stem from a commercial standpoint and seem culturally significant for the franchise, local Hong Kongers see this modification as a political threat and a step further away from independence from China.