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Are women the future of Japan’s gaming industry?

The Nintendo 3DS title Animal Crossing: New Leaf is currently one of the best-selling games on the planet, with 7.4 million copies worldwide so far and counting. Interestingly, Animal Crossing: New Leaf owes a lot of its success to a group of women in Japan, which is quite an achievement for a country where the gender gap is so wide. What could this mean for women in the Japanese gaming industry? Rob Fahey of Games Industry explains:

“Japan is a nation where the gender gap remains so wide you can rarely see one side from the other. Female participation in the workforce is low by the standards of developed countries; around 48 percent, which is a solid 10 percent behind countries like the UK and the USA. In itself, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as a society which placed equal value on women’s free choices either to pursue careers or raise children could be laudable, but Japan isn’t that society,” writes Fahey.

“It’s a feather in Nintendo’s cap that such a thing was attempted, and a great boon both to Nintendo and to [Animal Crossing Director] Aya Kyogoku herself that it was such a wonderful success. For a Japanese console games industry that has been wondering how to rediscover its relevance in the wake of some pretty tough years, perhaps there’s a lesson here. Outsider experiences make for the most fascinating storytelling and the most challenging ideas in-game design; to the benefit, not the exclusion, of the “traditional” consumer market.”

Read the full piece on Games Industry.

[Image: Animal Crossing]

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