Official Pokemon Japan Website Remains Silent On Masuda’s National Dex Message

A few days ago, The Pokemon Company International published a message from Game Freak director Junichi Masuda to address concerns about the removal of the National Dex from Pokemon Sword and Shield and all future games.

The way The Pokemon Company delivered the message to Pokemon fans was very different in the west and Japan. In the west, The Pokemon Company International shared the message, posted on the official Pokemon English website, on their official Pokemon Twitter account:

Whereas in Japan, Junichi Masuda tweeted the message on his personal Twitter account seven hours after it was released:

And there could be a reason why that’s the case. Masuda’s message wasn’t shared on any official Pokemon Japan social media channels, and neither was it published on the official Pokemon Japan website.

Some Pokemon fans living in Japan believe that The Pokemon Company has intentionally done this to deflect the blame to Junichi Masuda and suppress discussion about the message in Japan. Those who have noticed this questioned Masuda on Twitter, but they have not received any responses so far.

There is a similar movement to #BringBackNationalDex in Japan called #互換切り (#NoLongerCompatible), so there are Japanese players who are unhappy about the decision to leave out some Pokemon from the games.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.