Player from Japanese ‘e-sports’ team suspended over comments about people with disabilities

By Barrier Free Japan with extracts from Daily Sports via Yahoo! Japan

May 52022

On May 1^st 2022, a player from the Japanese professional e-sports team ‘REJECT’, previously known as ‘All Rejection Gaming’ or ‘ARG’ made a comment during a game that was perceived to be discriminatory towards people with disabilities. The player ‘SaRa’ has since been suspended from the team.

The team apologized on its official website and other media for making comments that discriminated against people with disabilities during a game streaming session, and on May 3rd, the team announced the suspension of the player’s activities until the end of December this year, a total cut in player remuneration during this period, and will be denied participation in social contribution activities.

The player in question, SaRa, also apologized on his Twitter account, saying: ‘I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my inappropriate comments. Although it was not directed at anyone in particular, it was an unbecoming comment as a professional player and as a member of society”.

On May 4th, after the punishment was announced, he apologized again, saying: ‘My comments are unforgivable and I take them very seriously.