Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune has blasted the Japanese gaming industry in an interview conducted by 4Gamer.net right after his recent exit from Capcom, and translated by a NeoGAF forum user. In it, Inafune says that Japanese publishers are "making developers into salarymen" and that he could no longer be the designer he wanted to be at Capcom. Inafune also revealed that he would have liked to have worked alongside his former employer after the split, perhaps as an outside contractor, but was told, "That won't be necessary."

Inafune is quite honest in the interview, commenting that Capcom won't survive using its current employment structure, and that the company will have to pare down its internal workforce and commission Western developers to help make its games in the future. Western developers, says Inafune, are "far and away more passionate" than Capcom's internal teams -- and technically superior, as well.

As for what's next, it sounds like Inafune is planning to start his own company. He says he wants to "do business" and be a "further driving force" in the Japanese games industry. It's a pretty epic interview; you can read it in its entirety at the via link.