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The reason for this change is that Oddworld Inhabitants were advised that it would be tough to sell four‐fingered characters to the Japanese market,1 as they would risk being threatened with legal action by certain liberation groups who do not want four‐fingered humanoid characters to appear in Japan.2 They claim it is a derogatory symbol comparable to the yellow badges Jewish people were forced to wear by various authorities throughout history.3
In Japan there exists a social minority group, who are still discriminated against, know as the ‘burakumin’, descendants of an outcast caste called the ‘eta’. The eta typically worked in occupations relating to death, such as executioners, undertakers, butchers, and leather and abattoir workers, and Buddhist and Shinto views on killing meant the eta were seen as undesirables.4 A four‐fingered gesture came to be an insult for those that worked with animals (Oddworld Inhabitants suggested this because of work‐related accidents,3 but more likely it refers to the four legs of animals)2.
Oddworld Inhabitants were told that the Walt Disney Company pays five million dollars a year so their characters can keep their original four fingers3 (although this appears to be a myth), and were not prepared to pay that money, and instead adapted Abe’s image so that Abe would be inoffensive in Japan. However, they take note that permitting characters to be offensive if enough money is paid is a form of extortion, and recognize the irony that although the burakumin liberation groups claim to be stamping out discrimination against descendants of meat workers, they have discriminated against Abe—who happens to be a meat worker.3
Wow I didn't Know all that happend because of finger :D