Tokyo is Hosting a "Family Friendly" Street Fighter 6 Tournament

For the last several years, Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been encouraging participation in esports with their annual Tokyo eSports Festa. Unlike what you might expect, they actually feature fairly non-standard game lineups.

For example, Tokyo eSports Festa 2025 included competition for WBSC eBASEBALL: POWER PROS, Gran Turismo 7, Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival, Puzzle & Dragons, Puyo Puyo eSports, and Monster Strike. 

On top of that, they offer other casual experiences for everyone, from kids to seniors and people with disabilities, underlining that it's a free and open event where everyone could find something to do.

This year, they are also including Street Fighter 6 as one of the competitive titles, which could be another sign of its popularity, since the event normally doesn't go for traditional esports titles.

There is one caveat, however – no swimsuits, since it's meant to be a "family friendly" event.

More specifically, no female character in swimsuits, since they specifically cite new and somewhat revealing outfits for Chun-Li, Cammy, Kimberly, Manon, and AKI. When it comes to swimsuits for Luke or Jamie, it's completely fine.

Weirdly enough, the tournament is still fine with some of the other overtly sexualized outfits, like Juri's half-way unzipped pajamas.

Naturally, this was met with a fairly negative reaction from players who see this either as hypocritical or simply unnecessary. Eventually this matter even reached Zenko Kurishita, a Japanese politician and free speech activist who served two terms in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.

He offered a rather positive outlook on the situation, pointing out that 5 years ago the Tokyo Metropolitan Government didn't even want to feature any games that would feature conflict and combat, so including Street Fighter 6 is already a step in the right direction.

It seems like the new rule regarding swimsuits stems from fear or receiving complaints, rather than any concern about how legitimate those complaints are. Perhaps if given enough time these restriction will only relax further.