Minoru Arakawa is a Japanese businessman best known as the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, and the co-founder of Tetris Online, Inc.
15 Facts About Minoru Arakawa
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Minoru Arakawa was born on 3 September 1946 in Kyoto, Japan, the second son of Waichiro Arakawa and Michi Ishihara.
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Minoru Arakawa's family was wealthy; the total real estate of Minoru Arakawa's family combined was about one-fifth of the downtown district in Kyoto.
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Minoru Arakawa began studying at Kyoto University in 1964, taking general classes for the first two years before focusing on civil engineering.
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Minoru Arakawa graduated with a master's degree in 1969, before moving to Boston in 1971 to continue studying civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Minoru Arakawa witnessed several protests against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War, but did not participate.
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Minoru Arakawa graduated MIT with a second master's degree in 1972.
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At a Christmas party in Kyoto, Minoru Arakawa met Yoko Yamauchi, daughter of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi.
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Minoru Arakawa had modest success at importing arcade games from the parent company in Japan, and then betting his small company on a huge order of Radar Scope with disastrous reception.
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Minoru Arakawa hired Howard Phillips, who would be invaluable to the creation of the Nintendo Power magazine.
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In January 2002, Minoru Arakawa resigned as NoA president and was succeeded by Tatsumi Kimishima, former chief financial officer of Nintendo's Pokemon subsidiary.
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Minoru Arakawa won a lifetime achievement award in February 2007 at the Interactive Achievement Awards.
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In January 2006, Minoru Arakawa co-founded Tetris Online, Inc with Henk Rogers and Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, which developed various games for Nintendo DS, Wii, iOS, and Facebook.
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Minoru Arakawa served as the president of Tetris Online, Inc until March 2013.
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Minoru Arakawa is played by Ken Yamamura in the 2023 movie Tetris.