The King is dead, long live the King! Nintendo has released a notice following an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors announcing the appointment of Tatsumi Kimishima as the new president of Nintendo Co Ltd (NCL).
Prior to joining Nintendo, Kimishima had a long career at Sanwa Bank of Japan and a two-year stint as Chief Financial Officer of The Pokemon Company. He was appointed Director of Nintendo of America in 2002, Director and Chairman in 2006, and in 2013 he became Managing Director of NCL. These are just a few of the positions he filled. Kimishima is a man with a vast amount of experience, and has been brought up in the past as a likely candidate for company president. A huge chunk of his career was spent living in various cities throughout the USA, and many consider him to be “more in touch with Western culture and market” than other NCL figureheads.
Interestingly, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda have also received new, additional titles: Creative Fellow and Technology Fellow, respectively. This newly established title is defined by the company as: “An individual selected from among the Representative Directors who has advanced knowledge and extensive experience, and holds the role of providing avdice and guidance regarding organizational operations in a specialized area.”
This definition doesn’t really describe anything Miyamoto and Takeda weren’t already doing, as far as we know. So it raises some interesting questions. Since Kimishima seems to be more of a money/admin guy, perhaps this is Nintendo’s way of distributing authority into a tech, finance, and creative branch…
Will we see the birth of a Triumvirate? Is Kimishima just a placeholder until a younger, more charismatic board member is ready to ascend the throne?! These are exciting times we live in.
– Eduardo R.
Contributor
