What Do Japanese Think of Scarlett Johansson as the Major?

The Japanese View of Scarlett Johansson Ghost in the Shell

Hollywood’s adaption of Ghost in the Shell has a lot of people talking, and in some cases complaining, because the role of Makoto Kusanagi was given to Scarlett Johansson, who is not “Japanese.” But what do the Japanese people think about this change?

At first the Japanese being interviewed were unable to understand how anyone could criticize the decision to hire a famous, well-regarded actress for this role, and the idea had to be explained to them in detail before they could even express an opinion. The Japanese being interviewed were generally positive about ScarJo in the role, and (as Japanese generally are), tickled that people around the world are taking an interest in their popular culture.

When I seen people complaining about the change on Facebook, I ask them two things.

First, I ask them to give a list of suitable Asian actresses that might have been considered instead of Scarlett Johansson. Generally speaking, the ones complaining the loudest can’t name any Asian actress, let alone any Japanese ones.
Then I ask them who their favorite actors from the 2013 47 Ronin film were, and again they draw a blank, because no one saw this movie, as it was a terrible film. Part of the problem was the insistence on an all-Japanese cast (except for Keanu Reeves) who had zero name recognition in the West and (take it from a former ESL teacher) had no business reading lines in English. 47 Ronin became the #1 money-losing film of all time, something any studio would naturally want to avoid repeating.

I have different concerns over the Ghost in the Shell live action film, mainly that we all helped create anime as a worldwide sub-culture and we weren’t happy seeing it mined for ideas by Hollywood studios. Also, CGI is an amazing technology that should be used sparingly, and this film appears to use so much that the movie is likely “soulless.” We’ll see when it’s released.

(Screencaps below via Imgur, the original video is below. The original includes some additional input about Edward Zo not being considered for the Death Note role, if you want to watch. (“Well it’s Hollywood, so it can’t be helped,” a very Japanese thing to say.) Interesting to note that the interviews were done in Osaka, and everyone has the cutest accents.