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Minoru Arakawa (荒川 實 Arakawa Minoru) (born September 3, 1946) was the founder and first president of Nintendo of America (NOA) from 1980 to 2002.
Born in Kyoto, Japan, he attended Kyoto University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1972, he was hired by Japanese conglomerate Marubeni as part of their international staff, with the responsibility of helping to develop hotels, offices and condominiums overseas. He married the daughter of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, Yoko Yamauchi but continued to work for Marubeni. He moved to Vancouver, and Yoko joined him there.
Arakawa impressed Hiroshi with the business acumen he displayed in his Marubeni Vancouver real estate projects. Hiroshi invited him to run a Nintendo production plant in Malaysia in 1979. Arakawa turned down that offer.
Hiroshi approached Arakawa again a year later with another offer: to establish Nintendo of America, an offer which he accepted. The company was founded in New York City in 1980, and he became its first president. After a disastrous experience with the Radar Scope arcade game, he rebounded by converting the poorly received Radar Scope to the phenomenally successful Donkey Kong, which has had many sequels.
Starting in 1985, he and Howard Lincoln were instrumental in rebuilding the video game industry (after the crash of 1983) with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Arakawa also hired Howard Philips, who would be invaluable to the creation of Nintendo Power magazine.
In 2002, after 22 years at the helm of NOA, Arakawa retired. Tatsumi Kimishima, former chief financial officer of Nintendo's Pokémon subsidiary, stepped up to take his place. Arakawa won a lifetime achievement award in February 2007 at the Interactive Achievement Awards.
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