Hiroshi Yamauchi

Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内溥, Yamauchi Hiroshi^?) (Kyoto, November 7, 1927-Ib., September 19, 2013) was a Japanese businessman, the third president of Nintendo from 1949 until he resigned in May 2002. He he is known for turning Nintendo, once a thriving family-owned hanafuda card company, into the multi-billion dollar, globally recognized video game company that it is today. Yamauchi was succeeded by Satoru Iwata (2002-2015).

In April 2013, Forbes estimated Yamauchi's net worth at $2.1 billion, and he was the 13th richest person in Japan and the 491st richest person in the world. As of 2008, Yamauchi was the richest person in Japan with an estimated fortune at the time of $7.8 billion. At the time of his death, Yamauchi was Nintendo's largest shareholder.

Yamauchi was also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team during the 1990s, though he never attended a club game.

Early Years

Hiroshi Yamauchi was born on November 7, 1927 to Shikanojo Inaba and Kimi Yamauchi. His father, Shikanojo, had adopted the family name Yamauchi, to eventually become president of the company and continue the family business. However, in 1933 he abandoned his wife and son. After this fact, Hiroshi is raised with his grandparents, Sekiryo and Tei Yamauchi.

In 1945, at only 18 years old, he married Michiko Inaba, a marriage arranged by his grandfather Sekiryo, from this marriage his daughter Yoko (1950), his daughter Fujiko (1957) and his son Katsuhito (1957) would be born.

Nintendo and reinvention

Yamauchi becomes president after the forced retirement of his grandfather, Sekiryo Kaneda. In those years, Yamauchi runs the company as if it were an emperor. He was the only one who judged the potential of each product. If the product was to his liking and his honed instinct for success gave the go-ahead, the product would see the light of day on the market. Over the years and some failed businesses, such as a taxi company and a love hotel, he was directing the business towards electronic toys, and from there, to the fledgling video game industry.

Already in the midst of creating video games, Yamauchi decided to expand Nintendo outside of Japan. The chosen country was the United States, since the arcade market was beginning to grow in those lands. To do this, he sent his son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa, to run the new American office. There they released some of the arcades that were successful in Japan, like Radar Scope or Space Fever, but they weren't very successful. Yamauchi then entrusted another designer with the job of creating a successful arcade. There would begin the story of Shigeru Miyamoto and his Donkey Kong, as well as some beneficial years to come for the company.

Under Yamauchi's tenure, a series of events and achievements of Nintendo were given in more detail below, directed directly by him, which will help to understand the great leap the company underwent from making decks to creating of video games.

In 1951, Yamauchi changes the name of the company after 62 years: Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. (the translation could be Nintendo Playing Cards, or Nintendo Card Games). The following year a new headquarters for the company is built, staying in the city of Kyoto, in addition to merging all its letter factories.

In 1953, Nintendo Playing Card becomes the first company to successfully manufacture and sell decks of laminated playing cards. And in 1959, Yamauchi signs an agreement with Walt Disney to use his characters in the Japanese company's decks of cards, thus opening a new market with children's decks.

1963 is the year of the company's change of course. Yamauchi changes the name again, this time definitively and as it is known today: Nintendo Co., Ltd.. This change is due to the fact that it was intended to open the company to new types of products. The first product Nintendo makes, other than playing cards, are packets of instant rice. The business is a failure. Like a love hotel and a taxi company called Daiya. Although the taxi company was initially successful, workers demanded wage increases and benefits were cut, forcing the business to close.

In 1964 he created the Games division within Nintendo, dedicated to the development of games and toys. The first product to come out of this department is the Rabbit Coaster. In 1966, an employee named Gunpei Yokoi devised the Ultra Hand, which was a great success.

In 1969, the Uji factory was built in Kyoto.

In 1970, he reached an agreement with Sharp to use light sensor technology and the Kousenjuu line was created, consisting of a gun that emits light and a target that reacts to that light emitted. This makes Nintendo the first Japanese company to include electronic components in children's toys. In 1973, Nintendo bought several abandoned bowling alleys and turned them into Laser Clay Shooting System. They would be venues where ray gun technology would be used to shoot birds made of light. This business also reported great benefits, until 1975, when due to the oil shortage, Nintendo abandoned its business to dedicate itself to distribution, importing the American Magnavox Odyssey video game console to Japan.

It is in 1977 when Nintendo creates its first game console, the Color TV Game 6, and begins its journey in the world of video games.

The end of an era

The GameCube console was the last product of the Yamauchi era. The console followed the same premises as all the previous ones: a console created only to play video games. By then, rival consoles had eaten a lot of ground from Nintendo, and the GameCube would end up being the company's second-lowest-selling console, culminating a decline that had already lasted several years.

After Nintendo

On May 31, 2002, Yamauchi resigned as Nintendo's president and appointed Satoru Iwata as his successor. He remained with the company as chief executive officer (CEO) until June 2006, when he decided to retire due to his advanced age and knowing that he had left the company in good hands. Tatsumi Kimishima, who would also be Nintendo's president between 2015 and 2018, replaced him then. Yamauchi rejected the pension offered to him for retirement (between 9 and 14 million dollars), claiming that Nintendo could put that money to better use.

Much of that money was invested in building a museum called Shigureden, dedicated to the history of hanafuda cards and Nintendo. The project for this museum was personally supervised by Shigeru Miyamoto between 2007 and 2008.

Between 2007 and 2012, Hiroshi Yamauchi was the richest person in Japan, mainly because his shares in Nintendo had multiplied since the launch of the Nintendo DS and Wii, and he had a personal fortune of $7.9 billion..

However, after the release of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, this changed due to the decline in the value of Nintendo shares, but he remained one of the richest people in Japan until his death.

Death

On September 19, 2013, due to complications from pneumonia, he died in a hospital in Kyoto, Japan, at the age of 85.