News "The Colour Pink Is Associated With Sex" - Yakuza Creator's Battle With Sega Over Video Game Nookie

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The Yakuza / Like A Dragon series has become an international success thanks to its gripping storylines, open-world gameplay and its willingness to embrace mature themes such as crime, violence and sex.

However, getting Sega to agree to such themes appearing in the series was more of a battle than you might imagine, given how popular the franchise has become.

On a recent episode of Weekly Ochiai, Sega's former chief creative officer and creator of the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series Toshihiro Nagoshi spoke about the battle to include sex workers in the game:

With locations related to prostitution, it's obviously out of the question to visually depict what goes on inside. So, I made it so that the character enters, meets the woman and the scene fades out to a completely pink screen.

You might assume this would be enough to pacify Sega, but it had the opposite effect:

This ended up being pointed out as an issue, and when I asked why, I was told that it's because the color pink is associated with sex. This escalated into a fight, with me going, 'You may think pink is sexual, but that's just your opinion. There are so many pink things in this world, do you get aroused every time you see them?' It was quite an amusing fight.
But from my side, I wasn't trying to push these things like a practical joke. These were things I considered to be acceptable after properly evaluating them based on my morals and values. That's why I remained stubborn and fought to the end.