Hideo Kojima, the famous game director behind Death Stranding and it’s sequel, recently shared his reasons for why most actors in his games come from Western countries rather than Japan, even though his studio is based in Tokyo.

In a recent interview with IGN Japan, Kojima explained that language barriers play a big role in his casting decisions. Since his team records voice acting in Los Angeles studios, he needs actors who can speak English at a native level to work smoothly with the rest of the cast.

“We record with other actors in a studio in Los Angeles, so it’s a bit of a problem if they don’t have native-level English skills,” Kojima said. He mentioned that finding Japanese actors who can speak both Japanese and perfect English has been challenging.

The director did manage to cast one Japanese actor in Death Stranding 2: Shioli Kutsuna, who plays a character named Rainy. Kojima chose her because she grew up in Australia and speaks fluent English, making her a good fit for the international production.

But language isn’t the only challenge Kojima faces. He also pointed out technical problems when trying to recreate Asian actors’ appearances in his games using scanning technology.

“It’s difficult to make Asians look like their real-life counterparts,” he explained. “Women and young people in particular have such beautiful, smooth skin. Asians, and not just Japanese people, are known for their beautiful, smooth skin, so it ends up looking like CG.”

According to Kojima, the scanning technology works better on older actors or people with more detailed features like freckles, as these details are easier to capture and make look realistic in the game. Despite these challenges, Kojima said he wants to work with more Japanese actors in the future. He mentioned that new technology helped him achieve better results with Kutsuna’s character, and he hopes to keep improving this process.