It's amazing that people are still harping on about cybernetic bodies. Whitewashing is about discrimination against real people, not plot points in an anime/manga series.

Wasn't this topic put to rest when Oshii's remarks were released? Apparently not.

Instead of using typical otaku logic to argue endlessly, there are first-hand perspectives that make the issue clearer and simpler. Mamoru Oshii's opinion about Ghost in the Shell is only one perspective -- and not the definitive one when it comes to the American cultural issue of whitewashing in Hollywood.

Japanese perspectives.

Mamoru Oshii

What issue could there possibly be with casting her?... The Major is a cyborg and her physical form is an entirely assumed one. The name 'Motoko Kusanagi' and her current body are not her original name and body, so there is no basis for saying that an Asian actress must portray her. Even if her original body (presuming such a thing existed) were a Japanese one, that would still apply.

Another Japanese perspective:

From the on-the-street interview of Japanese young people in Japan about whitewashing of 2017 Hollywood Ghost in the Shell:

"An Asian actor (Edward Zo) tried to audition for the leading Japanese role of Death Note but was told that they weren't looking for an Asian actor. What do you think?"

Person 1: I'm not really happy with it, but... as long as the role fits the actor who got hired, it should be fine.
Person 2: He shouldn't have gotten turned down like that. He should have at least had a chance.

"What do you think of the reason that he was Asian?"

Person 1: That's not good because it's discrimination.

Person 3: They should have included him for the audition.
Person 5: I think it's up to the director to decide... I don't think the Asian actor was happy and I'm sorry for him, but it's just the way things are.

Person 6: It's just the way things are because it's Hollywood. Because it will be more profitable with a white actress for the lead role?
Person 7: (Non-committal agreement with Person 6.)

Persons 6 and 7 laugh about Person 7's lack of enthusiastic agreement.

A Japanese-American perspective.

George Takei, on the planned whitewashing of Akira:

It's a tremendously popular anime that takes place in post-apocalyptic Tokyo. And Warner Brothers bought the rights to it... six, seven, eight months ago, they announced their casting ideas. People like Justin Timberlake... they were casting it all with white actors***.

Well -- if they want to change it, they should start with a clean slate. Have a whole new story. Why buy Akira, and then change it completely?

And so there was a great wave of criticism and protest to that approach. Well, they retreated on that; and we thought, maybe we had communicated. That maybe they had learned something.

You use what we have available now, the technology. Twitter, and Facebook and so forth. And so word has spread like wildfire and Warner Brothers retreated on that. We thought they had learned from that.

But now, it's come back again, and as you point out, they're still insisting on going the same route...

Hollywood makes some progress -- grudgingly, more often than not -- and we take a few steps backwards. And it seems that the Akira project seems to be indicating that step backwards. So, we have to keep on keeping on. Keep on pressing. Keep on pushing these antiquated ways of thinking.

They have the right to do something different, if that's their concept. But then don't publicise it as Akira. Why pay tonnes of money to buy the rights, when they're going to change it, anyway? It would be much more economical to put that money into the production itself, rather than buying something and changing it.

So, I think the struggle continues. We've made some progress, but we also take a few steps backwards.

Repeating the talking points about "ethnicity-free cybernetic bodies" misses the real point completely. Hollywood had the opportunity to cast an Asian actress, and predictably choose a white one instead.

Most Americans and worldwide audiences don't know about the manga or 1996 anime. It's more strange for a white woman to play an apparently Japanese character than to simply cast a Japanese actress like Kikuchi Rinko or Fukushima Rila. Otaku logic doesn't apply to Hollywood films created for millions of non-anime fans.

But... they had to cast Scarlett Johannson for a big-budget film, right? There are very few Japanese-American actresses available precisely because Hollywood has openly discriminated against actors of Asian ethnicity for decades. Ghost in the Shell is the result of decades of discrimination, and continues that trend.

Who's right? Oshii or Takei?

Oshii is right. Technically, anyone could play Kusanagi. His Japanese perspective also omits the social/political awareness that informs the Asian-American experience.

Even the interviewees in Japan agreed that refusing to audition Japanese lead actors is wrong. Racist casting policies are not hard to grasp, unless you're trying extremely hard to ignore the problem for some reason.

Hence, George Takei is also right. Whitewashing in Hollywood is real and continues with Ghost in the Shell, and quite likely will be so with Akira (although hopefully not).

***Director Rupert Sanders bragged that Ghost in the Shell 2017 boasted a "diverse cast", then gave us a film where four out of five lead actors were white. The token appeasement of whitewashing concerns did nothing to remedy the problem itself.

Scarlett Johannson also blatantly lied that she "would never attempt to play a person of a different race", when the entire plot of GitS2017 literally revolves around that point. She didn't misspeak; she lied -- which indicates that she knew that she had something to lie about. Even ScarJo knows that whitewashing is wrong, and she chose to participate in it anyway.