A Salute to Japanese Game Designers Keiji Inafune: Inafune is probably one of the lesser known but just as deserving designers in this line-up, but nevertheless his creations are just as earth shattering. Inafune is the father of our beloved blue bomber, Mega Man. To this day Mega Man is a strong franchise and has seen its fair share of spotlight outside of the videogame industry, having been given its own television cartoon in 1995. Inafune is also responsible for the highly successful Onimusha series, Capcom’s fourth largest franchise. Inafune is currently the head of Capcom Production Studio 2; but looking back on his past, one will find that he started out on a relatively successful franchise with his first designer job being on the Street Fighter team. Without a doubt Capcom owes a lot of its success to this guy. Inafune is currently working on Dead Rising (Xbox 360).

Hideo Kojima: The man, the myth, the legend: Mr. Kojima. By far, one of the most well known designers today, it shouldn’t even be necessary to outline his achievements. In a sense, Kojima’s Metal Gear series is responsible for the stealth/action genre as a whole. Metal Gear, originally released in 1987, set the ground work for a series that would grow to become one of the Playstation’s biggest assets. Whether you love him or not, everyone knows Solid Snake. However, Kojima is also credited with grand franchises such as Zone of the Enders and Boktai as well; both of which are highly successful. Once vice president of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, he is now head of his own development house: Kojima Productions, which is currently working on a number of projects including Metal Gear Solid Ac!d 2 (PSP), Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2), and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot (PS3). And to think, he wanted to grow up to be a film director…

Shinji Mikami: You may be asking yourself who this is, but you certainly know his work. This here is the creative mind behind the Resident Evil series; certainly one of the most well known franchises ever created. Before opening the fictional doors of the Umbrella Corporation in 1996, Mikami was working on Disney-licensed games Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Aladdin, and Goof Troop. To say the least, he made quite a departure from what people were accustomed to seeing from him. After Resident Evil’s success he increasingly became more of a business-head acting as executive producer for many popular games such as Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe. However, every so often he will take on a directorial role, as he did with P.N.03 and Resident Evil 4, which breathed new life into a dwindling franchise; this reasserts the quote: “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Mikami is currently employed at independently operated Clover Studios, which receives funding from Capcom, and is working on an undisclosed project.

Yuuji Horii: Another not-so-common name; Yuuji Horii has earned his stripes as a seasoned game designer by giving birth to the Dragon Quest series. Already up to its eighth installment, the Dragon Quest series is easily one of Square-Enix’s most prized franchises. Being formally schooled in literature, Horii worked as a freelancer for magazines, newspapers, and comic books before winning an Enix-sponsored “Game Programming Contest.” Winning the contest catapulted his ambitions for becoming a game designer and he has proven his mettle. He is currently the head of his own production company, Armor Project.

Satoshi Tajiri: Being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome didn’t stop Tajiri from becoming one of the most successful game designers of all time. No, he doesn’t work for Capcom; he’s not Miyamoto’s secret mentor; in fact, if anything, it’s the other way around. He is the creator of the Pokemon series. Pokemon, also known as Pocket Monsters, is the second largest selling game franchise of all time. The mantra “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” dates back before Pokemon to Tajiri’s childhood days when he spent hours collecting insects. He and a few friends worked together to publish a games magazine dubbed Game Freak; the foundation for what would soon become the development team responsible for Pokemon, which carried the same namesake.

There are still many other fantastic Japanese game designers, but to list them all and their achievements would take days. It’s easy to see how much the game industry as a whole owes to Japanese designers. Many of our most beloved franchises came out of the mountainous archipelago that is Japan, and unfortunately too many ethnocentric peoples in various parts of the gaming world forget that. Hopefully those people now realize that the reason this industry is as healthy as it is, is because of the concerted efforts of everyone worldwide; gamers and designers alike.