Capcom has removed the appearances of the Japanese “Rising Sun” flag and the flag of Hong Kong from Street Fighter II; which is included as part of the Capcom Arcade Stadium collection.
Twitter user @pomegd posted the noted differences after first spotting that the Rising Sun motif was removed from E. Honda’s stage in Street Fighter II. The stage normally features artwork of Mount Fuji with a Rising Sun in the background, but blank space was left instead.
The flag was speculatively removed due to its use as the official flag of the Imperial Japanese Army until and Navy until their disbandment in 1945 after World War II. Japan’s military has since been replaced by the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) which still uses the Rising Sun motif on their flags.
After further research, @pomegd also found that Hong Kong-born fighter Fei Long had his flag changed in character selection. Previously, Fei Long had the flag for Hong Kong under British rule in the original 1993 release. This was changed to the official Bauhinia flag of Hong Kong as recently as 2018 in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.
It’s worth noting that Hong Kong’s status as a “Special Administrative Region” has not changed in the 2 years since the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Speculatively, the flag may have been changed in response to the PRC’s stricter stance regarding Hong Kong in the wake of the protests against the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation bill.
China has cracked down on pro-Hong Kong messages since the protests and has gone as far as to ban Animal Crossing: New Horizons due to its features that allow rudimentary communication. Shanghai based developers miHoYo have also censored the phrases “Hong Kong” and “Taiwan” in their game Genshin Impact.
Capcom Arcade Stadium released on February 17th on the Nintendo Switch.
Images: StrategyWiki, Wikipedia
