Ex-Team Ninja game designer Tomonobu Itagaki has said he is worried that the Japanese games scene is closing itself off to outside influence in a similar way to the country as a whole some 400 years past.

"I think that, in time, [the games market] will end up much like the Japanese film industry, you know? I mean it will become similar in terms of its competitiveness in mass markets, its ability to raise funds, and its technological prowess. I mean, Kojima-san at has been talking about the technological side of the issue for quite some time now, hasn't he?" the designer told 1UP.

"Whether it goes into a major decline or not will depend on the publishers and game creators here in Japan. There's no point in traveling the same path that did 400 years ago, after all. I'm talking about sakoku, the policy in which Japan closed its borders to the outside world. What the is doing right now is just a modern form of sakoku."

The designer wouldn't be drawn into revealing his new project, although he did tease that "my partners and I are working on quite a few bombshells at the moment."

He also wants it to be known that "you've got to be an Earthling first, and a Japanese second."

By Luke Guttridge