List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Industry

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cicada88
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List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Industry

Post by cicada88 »

I’m trying to compile a study aid for Japanese language learners interested in video games. I’d like to eventually have the top 200-500 names or so in the history of Japanese games. Please list anyone you would want added to this list, preferably with either their name in Kanji or a link to their wikipedia or similar page. Since this is a STG forum, I’m definitely interested in any more STG-centric programmers, composers, etc. Here’s the cursory list I’ve made so far.

Please let me know if you notice any mistakes in the kanji. Also, please don’t post kanji that you are unsure of, because I would rather confirm them myself than put something incorrect.


A:
Hitoshi Akamatsu (赤松 仁司) [Castlevania series]
Yoshitaka Amano (天野 喜孝 formerly: 天野 嘉孝) [Final Fantasy artist]
Hirokazu Ando (安藤 浩和) [HAL Labs Composer]
Eiji Aonuma (青沼 英二) [Nintendo, Zelda series]
Naosuki Arai (新井直介) [Technosoft composer, Thunder Force series]
Minoru Arakawa (荒川 實 Arakawa Minoru) [1st President of Nintendo of America]

B:
Hideo Baba (Japanese: 馬場 英雄) [Namco Bandai Tales series]

C:
Jun Chikuma (竹間 淳) [Bomberman composer]

E:
Masanobu Endō (遠藤 雅伸) [Namco designer, Xevious/Tower of Druaga]

F:
Tokuro Fujiwara (藤原 得郎 Fujiwara Tokurō) [Capcom, Rockman, Sweet Home, Bionic Commando, Resident Evil]
Norihiro Furukawa (古川 典裕) [TAITO Zuntata member]

H:
Katsuhiro Harada (原田 勝弘 Harada Katsuhiro) [Tekken]
Masaya Hashimoto (橋本 昌哉) [Nihon Falcom, Ys Director]
Koichi Hayashida (林田 宏一) [Nintendo, Super Mario Galaxy]
Takayuki "Jemini" Hirono (広野 隆行) [Compile]
Yuji Horii (堀井 雄二 Horii Yūji) [Dragon Quest]
Shinji Hosoe (細江 慎治 Hosoe Shinji) [Namco, composer, producer]
Haruomi Hosono (細野 晴臣) [composer, member of YMO]
Tsukumo Hyakutaro (九十九 百太郎) [Thunder Force, composer]

I:
Koji Igarashi (五十嵐孝司 Igarashi Kōji)
Tsuneki Ikeda (池田 恒基) [Cave]
Atsushi Inaba (稲葉 敦志) [Capcom, DMC series, Okami, Viewtiful Joe]
Keiji Inafune (稲船 敬二) [Rockman]
Junya Inoue (井上 淳哉) [Cave]
Koichi Ishii (石井 浩一 Ishii Kōichi) [Final Fantasy series, Seiken Densetsu series]
Jun Ishikawa (石川 淳) [HAL labs composer, Kirby series]
Katsuhisa Ishikawa (石川 勝久) [TAITO Zuntata member]
Mieko Ishikawa (F) (石川 三恵子)
Tomonobu Itagaki (板垣 伴信) [Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden]
Shigesato Itoi (糸井 重里 Itoi Shigesato) [Mother series]
Hiroshi Iuchi (井内 ひろし)
Noriyuki Iwadare (岩垂 徳行)
Satoru Iwata (岩田 聡 Iwata Satoru) [Nintendo]
Toru Iwatani (岩谷 徹 Iwatani Tōru) [Pac-Man creator]
Hiroyuki Iwatsuki (岩月 博之) [Natsume, composer]

K:
Masashi Kageyama (影山 雅司) [Sunsoft, Gimmick! composer]
Hideki Kamiya (神谷 英樹 Kamiya Hideki) [Devil May Cry]
Kazuma Kaneko (金子 一馬) [Shin Megami Tensei series, artist]
Tamayo Kawamoto (F) (河本 圭代) [Capcom, composer, TAITO Zuntata member]
Eikichi Kawasaki (川崎 英吉) [SNK]
Akira Kitamura (北村 玲) [Rockman creator]
Yoshio Kiya (木屋 善夫) [Falcom, Dragon Slayer series]
Naoki Kodaka (小高 直樹) [Sunsoft composer]
Rieko Kodama (F) (小玉 理恵子 Kodama Rieko)
Yoshiaki Koizumi (小泉 歓晃) [Nintendo, Zelda series]
Ayami Kojima (F) (小島 文美) [Castlevania artist]
Hideo Kojima (小島 秀夫 Kojima Hideo) [Metal Gear series]
Koji Kondo (近藤 浩治 Kondō Kōji)
Toshinobu Kondo (近藤 敏信) [Umihara Kawase series]
Yuzo Koshiro (古代 祐三 Koshiro Yūzō) [Sega, composer]
Shinyu Kumazaki (熊崎 信也) [Nintendo, Kirby series]


M:
Masato Maegawa (前川 正人) [Treasure founder]
Hiroyuki Maruyama (丸山 裕之) [G.Rev]
Junichi Masuda (増田 順) [Pokemon series, composer/director]
Hiroyuki Masuno [Kemco composer]*
Susumu Matsushita (松下進) [prolific cover artist, Famitsu magazine, Adventure Island series]
Masaya Matsuura (松浦 雅也 Matsūra Masaya) [Parappa the Rapper series, Vib-Ribbon]
Shoji Meguro (目黒 将司) [Shin Megami Tensei series, composer]
Shinji Mikami (Japanese: 三上 真司) [Resident Evil]
Yasunori Mitsuda (光田 康典) [Chrono Trigger, Xenogears]
Toshiyasu Miyabe (宮部 寿保) [Natsume]
Shigeru Miyamoto (宮本 茂 Miyamoto Shigeru) [Nintendo]
Hidetaka Miyazaki (宮崎 英高) [Dark Souls series]
Tetsuya Mizuguchi (水口 哲也) [Rez]

N:
Yuji Naka (中 裕司 Naka Yūji) [Sonic Team]
Munehiro Nakanishi [TAITO Zuntata member]*
Nobuya Nakazato [Konami, Rocket Knight/Contra series]*
Shuichiro Nakazawa [TAITO Zuntata member]*
Manabu Namiki (並木 学 Namiki Manabu) [STG game composer]
Michiko Naruke (F) (成毛 美智子) [composer, Wild Arms series]
Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani (仁井谷 正充) [Compile]
Tomohiro Nishikado (西角 友宏) [TAITO Space Invaders designer]
Takashi Nishiyama (Japanese: 西山隆志)
Tetsuya Nomura (野村 哲也) [Square-Enix]

O:
Hisayoshi Ogura (小倉 久佳) [Zuntata Member]
Yoshinori Ono (小野義徳 Ono Yoshinori) [Street Fighter]
Junya "ZUN" Ota (太田 順也 Ōta Jun'ya) [Touhou]

S:
Yutaka "Yoot" Saito (斉藤 由多加 Saitō Yutaka) [Seaman]
Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信 Sakaguchi Hironobu)
Kiyoshi Sakai (酒井 潔) [Umihara Kawase series director]
Tomomi Sakai (酒井 智巳) [Sunsoft, Gimmick! designer]
Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本 龍一 Sakamoto Ryūichi) [composer, member of YMO]
Yoshio Sakamoto (坂本 賀勇) [Nintendo, Super Metroid director]
Hitoshi Sakimoto (崎元 仁 Sakimoto Hitoshi)
Masahiro Sakurai (桜井 政博) [Nintendo]
Ayako Saso (F) (佐宗 綾子 Sasou Ayako) [Namco, composer]
Yoko Shimomura (F) (下村 陽子 Shimomura Yōko)
Yoji Shinkawa (Japanese: 新川 洋司) [Konami, artist, Policenauts, Metal Gear Solid series]
Yuuichi Sotoyama (外山 雄一) [Compile/Raizing]
Goichi "Suda51" Suda Goichi Suda (須田 剛一 Suda Gōichi) [game designer]
Ken Sugimori (杉森 建 Sugimori Ken) [Pokemon series]
Yu Suzuki (鈴木 裕 Suzuki Yū) [Sega AM2]

T:
Satoshi Tajiri (田尻 智 Tajiri Satoshi) [Pokemon series]
Takahashi Meijin (高橋名人) [Hudson Soft spokesman]
Tomohito Takahashi [TAITO Zuntata member]
Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋 幸宏) [composer, member of YMO]
Kenichiro Takaki (高木 謙一郎) [Senran Kagura series]
Masahiko Takaki (高木 正彦) [TAITO Zuntata member]
Genyo Takeda (竹田 玄洋 Takeda Gen'yō) [Nintendo, early arcade games, Punch-Out!! series, StarTropics]
Shu Takumi (巧 舟) [Phoenix Wright creator]
Shunichi Tanaguchi (谷口 俊一) [Natsume artist and designer]
Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka (田中 宏和 Tanaka Hirokazu) [Nintendo composer]
Yoko Taro (横尾 太郎 Yokō Tarō) [Nier]
Soichi Terada (寺田 創) [Ape Escape series, composer]
Koji "Janus" Teramoto (寺本 耕二) [Compile]
Takashi Tezuka (手塚 卓志 Tezuka Takashi) [Nintendo]
Hiroshige Tonomura (殿村 裕誠) [Capcom, DuckTales composer, Taito Zuntata Member]
Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明 Toriyama Akira) [artist]
Kazumi Totaka (戸高 一生) [Nintendo, composer, Animal Crossing]

U:
Fumito Ueda (上田 文人) [Ico, Shadow of the Colossus]
Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫 Uematsu Nobuo)
Tatsuya Uemura (上村 建也) [Toaplan]
Daigo Umehara (Japanese: 梅原 大吾 Umehara Daigo) [Professional Street Fighter Player]
Ryu Umemoto (梅本 竜 Umemoto Ryū) [Cave]
Kazuko Umino (F) (海野 和子) [TAITO Zuntata member]

W:
Yasuhisa Watanabe (渡部 恭久) [TAITO Zuntata member]

Y:
Shinobu Yagawa (矢川 忍) [Cave]
Kenji Yamamoto (山本 健誌) [Nintendo, Metroid series composer]
Michiru Yamane (F) (Japanese: 山根 ミチル) [Konami composer]
Toshiharu Yamanishi (山西 利治) [Technosoft composer, Thunder Force series]
Akira Yamaoka (山岡 晃)
Kinuyo Yamashita (山下 絹代) [Konami, Castlevania composer]
Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内 溥 Yamauchi Hiroshi) [Former Nintendo President]
Kazunori Yamauchi (山内 一典) [Sony, Gran Turismo series]
Akira Yasuda (安田 朗) [Capcom, artist, Street Fighter Series]
Gunpei Yokoi (横井 軍平) [Nintendo]
Kotori 'urdcat' Yoshimura (吉村 ことり) [Technosoft]
Masahiro Yuge (弓削 雅稔) [Toaplan]
Last edited by cicada88 on Tue Jun 04, 2019 8:51 pm, edited 43 times in total.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Stevens »

Off the top of my head -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rieko_Kodama

Hiroyuki Maruyama of G. Rev

Tsuneki Ikeda of Cave

Handful of people from Treasure -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_(company)

Sorry I can't be more help. Good luck with this:D
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by cicada88 »

Thanks Stevens, big help

I will update the list in OP as these come in.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by WelshMegalodon »

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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by ED-057 »

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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by FinalBaton »

OTTOMH (will add links later)

Hitoshi Akamatsu (Director of earlier Castlevania games)

Kinuyo Yamashita (Composer for Castlevania on NES and countless other titles)

Shinji Mikami (Director/Creator of Resident Evil)

Jun Chikuma (Composer of Bonberman and so many others)

Gotta be more Konami staff to unearth, as well as Street Fighter, Final Fight and SNK.
Last edited by FinalBaton on Thu May 16, 2019 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by BulletMagnet »

I assume that since you included Daigo Umehara on the list you're not limiting yourself to people who actually create the games (unless I'm unaware of some project he was involved in)? Anyway, a handful of "visible-ish" names off the top of my head:

Takashi Tezuka (Nintendo)
Masahiro Sakurai (Smash Bros.)
Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani (Compile)
Kenichiro Takaki (Senran Kagura, if you want to field some uncomfortable questions :P)
Tsukumo Hyakutaro (Thunder Force, composer)
Junya "ZUN" Ota (Touhou, assuming you want homebrew stuff)
Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken)
Yoshinori Ono (Street Fighter)
Tomonobu Itagaki (Dead or Alive)
Michiru Yamane (Konami, composer)
Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy, illustration)
Tetsuya Nomura (Square-Enix)
Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry)
Hideo Baba (Tales series)
Hidetaka "Swery65" Suehiro (Deadly Premonition)
Yoko Taro (Nier)
Yutaka "Yoot" Saito (Seaman)
Goichi "Suda51" Suda (No More Heroes)
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by cicada88 »

BulletMagnet wrote:I assume that since you included Daigo Umehara on the list you're not limiting yourself to people who actually create the games (unless I'm unaware of some project he was involved in)? Anyway, a handful of "visible-ish" names off the top of my head:
Yeah, it's just a list of people you might come across in Japanese articles, books, media etc. I'm actually going to include more than just people, but also character names, titles, companies, etc.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Mortificator »

Just some shooting game people.

Tatsuya Uemura and Masahiro Yuge, the core of old-school Toaplan.

Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, Takayuki "Jemini" Hirono, and Koji "Janus" Teramoto, the real Compile heart.

Yuuichi Sotoyama, who was behind Compile's mech games and more at Raizing.

Hisayoshi Ogura, front man of Zuntata.

Junya Inoue, artist for some of Cave's most distinctive games.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by cicada88 »

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I will try to keep this updated every now and then.

I also just wanted to point out that Yagawa's name is first name is literally just the kanji for Ninja--and his surname means arrow river. Must be nice.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by CStarFlare »

If Daigo works for fighting games, I suppose Dolce is a good name for rhythm games.

https://medium.com/@marutranslation/the ... 0c390a095a
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Koa Zo »

Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto
they set the stage for much videogame BGM to come, doubly notable as the first artists to sample videogame music.

細野 晴臣 Hosono Haruomi [composer, member of YMO]
高橋 幸宏 Takahashi Yukihiro [composer, member of YMO]
坂本 龍一 Sakamoto Ryūichi [composer, member of YMO]

Shinji Hosoe, 細江 慎治 Hosoe Shinji [seminal Namco composer, producer]
Ayako Saso 佐宗 綾子 (さそう あやこ) [seminal Namco composer, arranger]
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by sven666 »

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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Stevens »

How could we forget these guys? This is their wiki page.

Zuntata is Taito Corporation's "house band". The members include Hisayoshi Ogura (the band's founder),[1] Tamayo Kawamoto, Masahiko Takaki, Norihiro Furukawa, Yasuhisa Watanabe, Shuichiro Nakazawa, Kazuko Umino, Tomohito Takahashi, Munehiro Nakanishi, and Katsuhisa Ishikawa.

They are known in part for composer for the soundtrack of games such as Bubble Bobble, the Darius series and the Ray series (RayForce, Raystorm and Raycrisis), among others. Stylistically, their sound is at times reminiscent of progressive/fusion artists like Return to Forever or early synthpop artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra.[citation needed]

In 2006, one of the members, Tamayo Kawamoto, left Zuntata and founded the band Betta Flash together with the singer Cyua. Kamamoto and Cyua formerly worked together for a track on the Ray'z Premium Box called "Ray'z - Beyond -".
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Specineff »

Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man's creator.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by cicada88 »

CStarFlare wrote:If Daigo works for fighting games, I suppose Dolce is a good name for rhythm games.

https://medium.com/@marutranslation/the ... 0c390a095a
Thanks for the input, but I feel like this is a little too niche. Also, that's a non Japanese nickname he goes by anyway.

The main goal of this isn't a comprehensive history of Japanese gaming, but to create a list of kanji names for those interested in studying Japanese and reading articles related to gaming.
Anyone who studies Japanese knows how much a pain in the ass name kanji are, which is why I have been contemplating making this list for a LONG time.

I'm going to add a bunch of game titles (particularly retro, STG, and arcade focused), game character names, company names, and maybe technical vocabulary eventually.
The end goal is a series of Anki flashcard decks that will be freely available to anyone.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by NTSC-J »

Just use the sub-categories on wiki JP. Here's "game creators" (click on 次のページ to go through all the pages).
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by GaijinPunch »

Read this book. That should cover up to the 90's or so.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by kitten »

only person i really want to rep is -

tomomi sakai, lead designer of gimmick for the famicom and 'hyper advisor' of trip world for the game boy (whatever that means). maybe a stretch to call him "influential," but gimmick's seen a lot of love in the last few years and is getting to be pretty widely regarded as one of the most technically competent and outright best games on the console.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by cicada88 »

NTSC-J wrote:Just use the sub-categories on wiki JP. Here's "game creators" (click on 次のページ to go through all the pages).
Nice method. I'll search through there once this thread stops bringing in any names.
GaijinPunch wrote:Read this book. That should cover up to the 90's or so.
I've seen you mention that before somewhere, and it definitely looks like an interesting book. A bit expensive on Amazon.jp unfortunately.
kitten wrote:only person i really want to rep is -

tomomi sakai
Added!
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by GaijinPunch »

cicada88 wrote: I've seen you mention that before somewhere, and it definitely looks like an interesting book. A bit expensive on Amazon.jp unfortunately.
It's not super cheap but man it's filled w/ info. Never finished it. Got about half way. Maybe I'll do that now that I'm not so bothered w/ video games. :)
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by lilmanjs »

Kazumi Totaka of the 90s Jazz group Spiritual Vibes would be a person to be on this list, wouldn't he? He's done a boat load of music for various Nintendo games over the years.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Jonny2x4 »

kitten wrote:only person i really want to rep is -

tomomi sakai, lead designer of gimmick for the famicom and 'hyper advisor' of trip world for the game boy (whatever that means). maybe a stretch to call him "influential," but gimmick's seen a lot of love in the last few years and is getting to be pretty widely regarded as one of the most technically competent and outright best games on the console.
Did some googling on her and it turns out she has a personal website that lists all of her projects. It seems she worked on Mr. Gimmick when she was 19.
http://www.electricsheep.co.jp/ts.html
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by kitten »

Jonny2x4 wrote:Did some googling on her and it turns out she has a personal website that lists all of her projects. It seems she worked on Mr. Gimmick when she was 19.
http://www.electricsheep.co.jp/ts.html
tomomi sakai is a guy. i've actually messaged him on that blog and got a response to both of my messages - i know that someone else met him in person through messaging him on there, too. he tends to be pretty reclusive and doesn't want a big spotlight on him. i felt a little bad when i showed someone else that blog, they left him a bunch of tedious questions and he mentioned getting worn out easily.

Image

i actually cried when he sent this back. gimmick is very much my favorite game and this meant a lot to me.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by Jonny2x4 »

kitten wrote:tomomi sakai is a guy. i've actually messaged him on that blog and got a response to both of my messages
Tomomi is such an unusual name for a Japanese guy.
i know that someone else met him in person through messaging him on there, too. he tends to be pretty reclusive and doesn't want a big spotlight on him. i felt a little bad when i showed someone else that blog, they left him a bunch of tedious questions and he mentioned getting worn out easily.
Yeah, a lot of former Japanese developers tend to be like that for some reason. I've actually managed to track down a retired developer who actually mentored a now famous (and still active) designer on a certain social media site, but I've been hesitant to contact him since he never talks about his past work.
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by kitten »

i feel like the tendency toward seclusion and modesty is because of how much the industry completely steamrolled them over. for a brief time, they had the chance to make an impact in an entertainment medium spontaneously popular worldwide with their own small country as the leader, and they shortly afterward got discarded like used materials or downgraded to the point their contributions not making a visible impact on the games. if the company you worked for didn't fold, you got minimized, working on games with longer development cycles and larger staff that took you from being an active influence or contributor to the game and more to just another cog.

so few got to be the auteur rockstars they wanted to be, and i imagine it's a mixture of lowkey resentment, shame, and just wanting to move on with their lives that they keep with them. you know, trying not getting swept up in another throe of passion that let them be naively taken advantage of by the machine that employed them. i think that mixture differs from person-to-person (some are still more loyal than others, but the corporate environment over there seems to instill to not talk badly of your employer even years after the fact) and has most talking about their time as meaningful, but few are willing to allow themselves to become so enthusiastic and have that get them in over their head, again.
Image i mean, you sure as hell don't see many people who didn't make it to being a modern director talk about how great their career path was or how much they finally made it in the world. so many tend to try and reduce what they were to just salarymen. it has to be tough on someone to believe themselves more than that and not have another opportunity to ever do anything about it. imagine going from working on something as beloved as rockman 2 as a passion project on the side at your job to, well, wherever most of the people who worked on the game ended up. rockman 2 was a game by a major publisher that got to happen because the people working on it wanted it to happen - that doesn't happen, these days.

my favorite video interview with any ex-industry person was with masashi kageyama, the composer for gimmick. he outright quit being involved with music for a while, and then got back in when he discovered an american group doing live covers of his music. last i remember, you can still get in touch with him on facebook and he'll be pretty friendly about it. the interview gets me tearing up pretty badly. i can't watch it without crying.
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kitten
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by kitten »

changed my mind, want to rep some others who aren't on here:

michiko naruke (なるけ みちこ) - the composer for the (parts of that had good music of the) wild arms series. also did a few assorted smash bros songs, including a super delightful version of stickerbrush symphony. her covering that was like some sort of impossibly wonderful match-up i'd have never dreamed of.

soichi terada (寺田 創) - composer for the ape escape series, as well as a few other things.

jun ishikawa (石川 淳) - HAL labs composer, worked on a lot of kirby games

hirokazu ando (安藤 浩和) - another HAL labs composer. both of these two are quite prolific in their memorable kirby songs

akira kitamura (北村玲) - creator of rockman. moved to takeru and directed cocoron and maybe also worked on little samson. criminal that inafune is on here without him.

hidetaka miyazaki (宮崎 英高) - Mr. Dark Souls

junichi masuda (増田 順) - director of some of the later pokemon games, programmer, composer of most of the memorable pokemon tunes

shinyu kumazaki (熊崎 信也) - the current lead of the kirby series. directed return to dream land, star allies, triple deluxe, and robobot

koichi hayashida (林田 宏一) - directed super mario galaxy 2, 3d land, and half-directed 3d world. supervised the most recent smash

nobuya nakazato (i can't find the kana, orz) - directed rocket knight adventures, contra hard corps, contra 3, contra: shattered soldier

shu takumi (巧 舟) - creator of phoenix wright, ghost trick. loves his dog

kazuma kaneko (金子 一馬) - artist for much of the smt series. distinct style

shoji meguro (目黒 将司) - composer for much of the smt series

ayami kojima (小島 文美) - the big castlevania artist everyone loves

akira yamaoka (山岡 晃) - this man needs no introduction

akira toriyama (鳥山 明) - you know. the dragon ball guy. but also very importantly, the dragon quest artist.

kiyoshi sakai (酒井 潔) - umihara kawase series' director

toshinobu kondo (近藤 敏信) - umihara kawase character designer, as well as founder of the studio that now makes the games

yoshio sakamoto (坂本 賀勇) - super metroid director, general metroid guy

kenji yamamoto (山本 健誌) - super metroid composer, metroid prime composer, general composer

naoki kodaka (小高 直樹) - prolific sunsoft composer

masato maegawa (前川 正人) - treasure founder. worked on a bunch of treasure and konami games. i probably most care that he did bucky o' hare for the famicom, though :B

naosuki arai (新井直介) - director of hyper duel and thunder force v, but more importantly a composer for tf iii, iv, and elemental master

toshiharu yamanishi (山西 利治) - the other big composer for tf iii, iv, and elemental master. also known as "funky surounin"

kotori 'urdcat' yoshimura (吉村 ことり) - technosoft co-founder, programmer for the original thunder force. has a kind of interesting history you can see a small part of, here. only transwoman on the list i can think to rep as actually influential (sorry tinyan)

hiroyuki masuno (again, can't find the kana, orz) - kemco composer that did the music for all three of the popular macventure ports. if you've played shadowgate, i'm sure he's gotten to you

hiroyuki iwatsuki (岩月 博之) - prolific natsume composer. did a lot of good stuff

shunichi tanaguchi (谷口 俊一) - natsume artist and designer

toshiyasu miyabe (宮部 寿保) - natsume director. each of these last three were more or less the power trio that worked on wild guns & the ninja warriors again who came back to do their remakes

- - - - - - - - - -

i'm maybe cherry-picking a little, here, but these have all been names i've looked up at one point or another and meant something to me. a couple are a bit selective, use your discretion if you'd prefer
Last edited by kitten on Sat May 25, 2019 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
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cicada88
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by cicada88 »

kitten wrote:changed my mind, want to rep some others who aren't on here:


i'm maybe cherry-picking a little, here, but these have all been names i've looked up at one point or another and meant something to me. a couple are a bit selective, use your discretion if you'd prefer
Thanks for all the names. I am basically adding anyone mentioned in here within reason. I might edit it down to 2 different lists for the final flash cards (one with everything, and one with only the most essential names).


BTW, I assume you were just copy/pasting for the structure of your list, but you have the kana for "Michiko Naruke" listed under several names. I will correct it when I add the names to the main list, but I just didn't want any new Japanese readers to get confused.
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kitten
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by kitten »

cicada88 wrote:BTW, I assume you were just copy/pasting for the structure of your list, but you have the kana for "Michiko Naruke" listed under several names. I will correct it when I add the names to the main list, but I just didn't want any new Japanese readers to get confused.
ah, egad, my poor clipboard Image

i think i properly fixed them - it was the two kirby composers who i'd copied off of their respective nintendo wiki pages. i had to click a little pop-up to get their jp games, so i guess that's where the clipboard went wonky
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Re: List of Influential Japanese People in the Gaming Indust

Post by ED-057 »

oh no! I forgot Noriyuki Iwadare https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/岩垂徳行
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