Female Tekken player says men under 170cm don’t have human rights, gets fired

Sometimes, you really should just keep opinions to yourself, right? I don’t care if you think Dark Souls 2 is the best of the bunch, or why you didn’t like Disco Elysium. Just don’t make that my problem. However when you get to the point you’re saying a group of people don’t have human rights, you’re probably in the wrong entirely.

According to Kotaku, a professional Tekken player has been fired from her team following some comments about male height. Tanukana was a part of Osaka-based Cyclops Athlete Gaming for her great skill at fighting games, but a recent livestream has changed that.

While live Tanukana was reported saying: “Men who are under 170 cm don’t have human rights.” She goes on to mention that men under that height should look into surgeries to make them taller. The Tekken player then apologised in a now-deleted tweet, claiming that she didn’t mean to express something seen as hate speech and she was simply trying to express her love of tall people.

Some are speculating about the language used in her original comments, however. Kotaku notes that the word for human rights in Japanese has two meanings. The word 人権 or jinken is used both in the context of human rights, but it is also the word for in-game items that all players require. There are some that think she used this word, because it was common terminology within her field.

Tanukana has apologised again, in a more formal tweet, which includes references to her sponsor Red Bull. Translated by Google translate, she says: “I am very sorry to all the fans who support me on a daily basis, to all the sponsors such as Red Bull, and to my selfish remarks, which caused unpleasant feelings and a great deal of inconvenience. I take it seriously that my remarks during the delivery are unacceptable and that my lack of awareness has led to it.”

Cyclops has terminated Tanukana’s contract. Whether it be that her comments were made in jest, worded badly, or just a terrible opinion, Cyclops may not have wanted to keep on her at risk of losing sponsorships or other opportunities down the line.