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...
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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 Yamauchi 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...
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