We sincerely appreciate your continued support of our company and content.
Recently, it was brought to our attention that the service we operate, Holoearth, included a character that could be interpreted as resembling a real individual. We have previously communicated regarding the measures taken in response to this matter, first in Japanese, and we would like to provide further updates on our ongoing actions.
[Regarding the NPC Incident (Japanese)]
https://holoearth.com/news/7990/
We would like to once again apologize to our users and all parties involved for any discomfort or inconvenience caused by this matter.
Since then, we have become aware that rumors and speculation—some of which we have deemed factually incorrect—have been circulating regarding this issue. Recognizing that this has caused concern and inconvenience for our users and stakeholders, we would like to provide a detailed explanation of the events to date and the measures we will take moving forward.
Background of This Matter
As previously communicated, the character in question was created using existing fashion items to promote diversity in avatar expression, and at no point during the creation process was it intended to depict a specific individual. We would like to reiterate that there was no intention to represent any particular person.
At the same time, we acknowledge that the circumstances make it difficult to dismiss the resemblance as a mere coincidence. We have received several comments from users and stakeholders noting this, and therefore, we are providing a more detailed explanation.
During production, the teams responsible for characters and avatar design were separate, each working independently on their respective aspects, and there was no intention to design the character based on a real individual. That said, in the planning stage, the character concept was initially intended to represent a manager in the farming industry.
However, at the time of implementation, in-application assets such as “workwear” were not yet available. As a result, readily available “modern items” were substituted, which contributed to the final appearance differing from the original concept.
We have conducted a thorough review of all related information, timelines, and investigations involving relevant personnel. Based on this review, we have concluded that the character was not intentionally designed to resemble any individual.
However, we fully recognize our responsibility for the implementation process that followed. During version pre-release validation, the possibility that the character might evoke the image of a real person was not identified, and the character was released as-is. This oversight occurred because the verification process primarily focused on internal service consistency and checking for similarities with related services and copyrighted materials. Consequently, the cross-referencing and review against broader information were insufficient, and the management functions within the business division may have been inadequate.
Response Following the Incident
After confirming matters internally, we established a task force to discuss appropriate measures and decided to:
- Remove the character in question.
- Provide an explanation of our response to users.
- Review and consider future preventive measures.
During this time, we postponed planned events while continuing to verify the issue and review further measures.
We are aware that rumors have circulated regarding this response, some of which contain apparent discrepancies concerning the timeline of our discussions and decisions. So we consider them to be untrue.
Future Measures
As explained in the background to this matter, we recognize this incident was caused by our internal review processes.
In response, we will strengthen our internal verification capabilities and revise our production and supervisory workflows. We are implementing measures that combine both human review and tool-based information validation, which have been incorporated into our operations.
Further, rather than relying solely on verification immediately prior to version releases, we are also reinforcing our validation framework in the earlier planning and proposal stages. By adopting a "shift-left" approach that identifies and eliminates risks before development resources are committed, we are improving our workflows to ensure greater quality from the earliest stages.
As for non-essential NPCs, we introduced a policy of not assigning character names to them to prevent potential risks in NPC implementations. We are steadily moving forward with specifications and rules for avoiding the issue altogether.
With these improvements now implemented, we hereby report these measures as our official response to the matter.
Finally, we kindly request that inquiries regarding this issue not be directed to any third parties, whether individuals or organizations.
Regarding Postponed Events
Currently, we are reviewing the postponed events with great care and attention and will consider resuming them in due course.
With respect to this incident, we reaffirmed that our foremost responsibility is to provide an environment where our services can be enjoyed by all with peace of mind. By thoroughly implementing measures as outlined above, the entire management team is sincerely committed to delivering content that is both safe and engaging.
