Shigesato Itoi

Shigesato Itoi (糸井重里 , Itoi Shigesato) (born November 10, 1948) is a famous Japanese copywriter and essayist, though he is best known outside of Japan as a game designer for his work on Nintendo's EarthBound series of games, as well as his bass fishing video game. He is also known as the person who thought up the name Game Boy. His normal activities, however, center around his blog/website, Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞) (lit. The Itoi Pret... more

Shigesato Itoi (糸井重里 , Itoi Shigesato) (born November 10, 1948) is a famous Japanese copywriter and essayist, though he is best known outside of Japan as a game designer for his work on Nintendo's EarthBound series of games, as well as his bass fishing video game. He is also known as the person who thought up the name Game Boy. His normal activities, however, center around his blog/website, Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞) (lit. The Itoi Pretty-Much-Daily News), which publishes Itoi's short essays on lifestyle and spirituality and also his interviews with artists, craftsmen, businessmen, etc., which tend to center on philosophical issues. Itoi has also co-written several books modeled on these interviews, in which he has a series of long conversations with, for example, an expert on neurology (Kaiba, The Hippocampus), about how to live as a human being in the world. He has voiced Mei and Satsuki's father, Tatsuo Kusakabe, in the Japanese version of the My Neighbor Totoro anime... less