This is a "reverse FAQ", since a few simple answers cover a multitude of questions.

From the useful conversations over the past week or so, there's one major point that many non-Japanese fans of Ghost in the Shell have missed. You have to take a different perspective in order to see it. When you do change your perspective, everything else changes, too. ;)

You don't have to be a super-otaku or "hardcore fan" to understand this as soon as you read it.

Are you ready? Here it is:

Japan is 98.5% populated by Japanese people. There are practically no "foreign" Japanese citizens. All media in Japan is created for Japanese people, by Japanese people, about Japanese people, unless stated otherwise.

What does this mean specifically about Ghost in the Shell? It means that:

• Kusanagi Motoko would be Japanese unless stated otherwise. Her "ghost" is a Japanese woman inside a cybernetic body. Her name is an alias, but her ethnicity is never questioned. Therefore, she is almost certainly Japanese. In a live-action film, she would also probably be portrayed by a Japanese actress. Not necessarily, but probably.
• The 2017 Hollywood film only makes the issue even more obvious. Spoiler: The screenplay murders Kusanagi's Japanese self and literally replaces her with Scarlett Johannsson. The explanation is that the cyborg body manufacturer was founded by white people, so they could only build white-looking cyborgs. That's like saying that Picasso was white, so he could only paint white people. It makes no sense.
• There is no "Japanese Scarlett Johansson" in Hollywood. This is guaranteed to be true as long as Hollywood shuts Asian actors and actresses out of lead roles, pushing Asian actors/actresses down to secondary roles, if at all. You can't find what you're trying not to see. This is called "whitewashing". Whitewashing is a form of systemic racism -- the erasure of entire ethnicities from the cultural record. Racism matters regardless of your particular ethnicity.

These four simple, basic points cover all of the following questions and issues:

• if this is a Hollywood problem, why are we talking about it?
• Kusanagi Motoko looks white, so whitewashing doesn't exist.
• Kusanagi Motoko is a cyborg, so she has no ethnicity.
• Kusanagi Motoko is an alias, not her real name. Her past is a mystery.
• There are no English-speaking Japanese actresses to play Kusanagi Motoko.
• Japanese anime is innocent. Why are we talking about racism when we all just want to innocently enjoy Ghost in the Shell?
• shouldn't society have moved beyond racism by now?
• you're talking about racism, so you must be a racist.
• whitewashing is a general problem. Ghost in the Shell is a specific anime, so go talk about whitewashing somewhere else.
• this subreddit isn't about whitewashing. You're a troll and an "SJW". Your "hidden agenda" is to start a "crusade" to have conversations about whitewashing in /r/ghost_in_the_shell.
• if you start a conversation about whitewashing, you're also calling everyone else a racist.
• if you talk about whitewashing, you're not a real fan of Ghost in the Shell.
• whitewashing of Ghost in the Shell gets downvoted. Downvotes mean that you shouldn't be allowed to post about whitewashing, even though it's directly tied to the 2017 Hollywood Ghost in the Shell film, as you've shown in each of your posts.

For the sake of this conversation, I've already blocked the seven trolls who spam any conversation about whitewashing, since I've discovered that this subreddit doesn't ban trolls and endlessly fighting them is a waste of time.

I'll probably compile all three of these FAQ posts into a single "master FAQ". If you have any new questions or thoughts, I'd be glad to continue this conversation in the comments. Thanks for reading. ;)

If I missed any points here, you can also read the previous two FAQ posts:

• FAQ, Part I: Why whitewashing of 2017's Ghost in the Shell is important enough to keep talking about -- and even arguing about -- in a friendly way.

• FAQ, Part II: Where does 2017's live-action Ghost in the Shell film take place? Why does whitewashing GitS matter, specifically? Answers to many common questions, for friendly discussion.