"We Aim To Be Inclusive"
For those that pre-ordered the Snowy Escape Pack, I got notified by a user that bowing at shrines can no longer be done. The Sims 4 team aims to be inclusive, yet actively censors and removes Japanes...
Forum Discussion
Notwithstanding having passed eye to the comments made through this thread and the likelihood that it may be checked, I too wish to add my thoughts in regards to this matter.
I shall avoid implicating the issue of race as, from an objective standpoint, the removed content at debate (the act of bowing at shrines) has zero relevance upon the relationship in which the nations referred to previously by others in the thread.
The Shinto religion, much like the pantheons of Europe in antiquity, existed well before its formal acknowledgement in the 6th century CE whereby the varied ancient Japanese practices of worship (and if one were to follow common academic thought, not all of which had their origins in Japan) were collectively recognised as Shintoism, as to differentiate these ancient practices from Buddhism and Confucianism, which had then been recently introduced into the country. It is true that following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 , Shintoism had once again seen reform, but this was an act that largely concerned the separation of Shintoism and Buddhism rather than a total reformation of the religion, and the state sponsorship of Shintoism was short lived.
In regards to the act of bowing, this tradition can be traced back as far as the 4th century BCE and is of Chinese origin and its origins in Shintoism are thought to have originally been an influence of its close association to Buddhism prior to the Meiji Restoration and as touched upon previously, the reform brought forward by the Meiji Restoration was one to disassociate Shintoism from Buddhism.
In conclusion the removal of the content concerned, as stated in my opening, has absolutely no historical significance in regards to the reasons that the content had been removed for.
In fact, one could argue that the removal of such practice (albeit one would have to be educated in such a field to identify such subtleties) is in fact removing an element of Shintoism that had likely been introduced from Buddhism and thus only acting in furtherance of what had intended to be mitigated.
I shall avoid implicating the issue of race as, from an objective standpoint, the removed content at debate (the act of bowing at shrines) has zero relevance upon the relationship in which the nations referred to previously by others in the thread.
The Shinto religion, much like the pantheons of Europe in antiquity, existed well before its formal acknowledgement in the 6th century CE whereby the varied ancient Japanese practices of worship (and if one were to follow common academic thought, not all of which had their origins in Japan) were collectively recognised as Shintoism, as to differentiate these ancient practices from Buddhism and Confucianism, which had then been recently introduced into the country. It is true that following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 , Shintoism had once again seen reform, but this was an act that largely concerned the separation of Shintoism and Buddhism rather than a total reformation of the religion, and the state sponsorship of Shintoism was short lived.
In regards to the act of bowing, this tradition can be traced back as far as the 4th century BCE and is of Chinese origin and its origins in Shintoism are thought to have originally been an influence of its close association to Buddhism prior to the Meiji Restoration and as touched upon previously, the reform brought forward by the Meiji Restoration was one to disassociate Shintoism from Buddhism.
In conclusion the removal of the content concerned, as stated in my opening, has absolutely no historical significance in regards to the reasons that the content had been removed for.
In fact, one could argue that the removal of such practice (albeit one would have to be educated in such a field to identify such subtleties) is in fact removing an element of Shintoism that had likely been introduced from Buddhism and thus only acting in furtherance of what had intended to be mitigated.
