25 Facts About Satoshi Tajiri

Satoshi Tajiri is a Japanese video game designer and director who is the creator of the Pokemon franchise and the co-founder and president of video game developer Game Freak.

Satoshi Tajiri continued to work as director for the Pokemon series until the development of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, when he changed his role to executive producer, which he holds to this day.

Satoshi Tajiri was an executive producer on the live-action film Detective Pikachu.

Satoshi Tajiri was born on August 28,1965, in Setagaya, Tokyo.

Satoshi Tajiri grew up in Machida, Tokyo, which at the time still maintained a rural atmosphere and was rapidly growing.

Satoshi Tajiri wanted his games to allow children to have the feeling of catching and collecting creatures as he had.

Satoshi Tajiri became fascinated with arcade games as a teenager, though his parents thought he was a delinquent for this pastime.

Satoshi Tajiri particularly enjoyed playing Taito's Space Invaders, which drew him into other video games.

Satoshi Tajiri was inspired by Namco games designed around a single specific action, notably Dig Dug.

Satoshi Tajiri took his Famicom apart to see how it worked, and won a contest for a video game idea sponsored by Sega.

Satoshi Tajiri took make-up classes and eventually earned his high school diploma.

Satoshi Tajiri did not attend university, but instead attended a two-year technical degree program at the National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College, where he majored in electronics and computer science.

Satoshi Tajiri wrote and edited a fanzine called Game Freak from 1981 to 1986, focusing on the arcade game scene.

Satoshi Tajiri created the Game Freak fanzine to help gamers with winning strategies and lists of easter eggs.

Satoshi Tajiri studied the Family BASIC game programming package, to better grasp the concepts of Famicom game design.

Satoshi Tajiri then purchased the requisite hardware for game development.

Satoshi Tajiri wrote as a freelance writer for the magazine Famicom Hisshobon, later called Hippon, and reviewed arcade games for Family Computer Magazine and Famicom Tsushin.

The idea came together after he saw a Game Boy and the ability to communicate between Game Boys, and Satoshi Tajiri decided Pokemon made the most sense on the handheld console.

Shigeru Miyamoto began to mentor Satoshi Tajiri, guiding him during the creation process.

Five employees quit, and Satoshi Tajiri did not take a salary, instead living off of his father's income.

Satoshi Tajiri had included Mew in the game in order to promote trading and interaction between players, but Nintendo was not aware of the creature upon release.

Satoshi Tajiri continues to be involved in the more modern Pokemon games as well.

Satoshi Tajiri cites Shigeru Miyamoto as a major influence, thinking of him as a sort of mentor.

Satoshi Tajiri drew much of his inspiration from old Japanese TV shows and movies, including Godzilla and Ultraman.

Satoshi Tajiri has stated that if he did not design video games, he would most likely be in the anime field.