In a recent interview with 4Gamer, Ishii discussed his potential return to Japan from Canada.

“As you might know, prices in Canada are steep,” he remarked. “A hamburger in a food court costs 20 Canadian dollars, which equates to over 2,000 yen. I wish it was tasty enough to justify that price, but it isn’t. In fact, McDonald’s in Japan is more flavorful. When I first arrived in Canada, all-you-can-eat curry was just 8 dollars, but the prices have continued to rise. It was affordable before COVID, but now… I hear Japan’s prices are high too, but still cheaper than Canada’s.”

Ishii is considering a return to the gaming industry driven by his passion for fighting games, a genre in which he has significant experience, having contributed to the original Virtua Fighter and worked on Tekken titles. He expressed interest in launching a fighting game project within a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and hopes to secure funding for it in Japan. Ishii also aims to negotiate with Sega to acquire rights to the Virtua Fighter IP to revitalize it, noting that the last mainline entry, Virtua Fighter 5, was released in 2006, with subsequent updates occurring until 2021.