Minoru Arakawa

President of Nintendo of America (1980-1994)

Born:

Personals:
Son-in-law of Hiroshi Yamauchi (Head of Nintendo), he lived in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and daughter for a few years working for a Japanese real estate company. Yamauchi, appreciated his management skills and when he was planning to open an American subsidary, he quickly asked Arakawa to head the American subsidary, Arakawa accepted. It was often said that if it was anybody other than Arakawa , Nintendo of America would never have existed. Unlike his father-in-law Arakawa doesn't have the sixth sense to know which product wil be the next hit, but he had another gift which enables him to surround himself with competent men who excel at their work, Howard Lincoln is living proof. The most important thing was, Arakawa was willing to keep on going even if it seemed the odds were against him or the goal was too far to acheive. An ordinary businessman probably would have given up when the NES' first incarnation, the AVS failed to attract retailer's attention. Or when the comapny lost millions to the failed attempt to sell Nintendo Game & Watches in America, despite its success in Japan. There have been rumours that Arakawa might be the successor to Yamauchi, but none of there rumours were ever confirmend.