Shuntaro Furukawa To Be Next President Of Nintendo; Shibata Also Stepping Down From Nintendo Europe Presidency

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

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• Japan
• Business
• Tatsumi Kimishima
• Shuntaro Furukawa

Shuntaro Furukawa Is Nintendo's New President

Pokemon Board Member Appointed as Kimishima Steps Down

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• by Jon Cousins
• 3:45am

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Shuntaro Furukawa

At Nintendo's financial report in Tokyo this afternoon, it has been announced that 68 year old Tatsumi Kimishima will step down in June after nearly three years as President of the company. 

He will be replaced by board member of both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, Shuntaro Furukawa. 

Furukawa joined Nintendo back in 1994, and has been Outside Director of the Pokémon Company since 2012. He's also assumed the roles of Managing Executive Officer, Supervisor of Corporate Analysis & Administration Division and Director of Nintendo since 2016. It is being reported in Nikkei that Furukawa worked on the Switch’s sales and marketing plans, and that he has previously spent ten years working in Europe.

Nikkei also reports that the switch isn't due to Kimishima's performance; in fact, it was Kimishima himself who thought that Nintendo’s management needed to be "younger" in order to understand the needs of its customers.

In addition, Satoru Shibata is leaving his role as president of Nintendo of Europe to take on a more global role at Nintendo Co. Ltd (NCL). At this time the company have not named a replacement for Shibata-san at Nintendo of Europe.

Nintendo have also appointed two new members to the board in Yoshiaki Koizumi and Takashi Tezuka, replacing older managers who are retiring. Koizumi has been called the architect behind the Switch and Tezuka most well known for producing entries in the Super Mario series.

In the most recent news, courtesy of http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/04/shuntaro_furukawa_is_nintendos_new_president ,

it would appear that not only will Kishima being stepping down as acting president of the company not too long from now, but Nintendo/Pokemon board member Furukawa has been named as his replacement.

[Ratcicle King]

In hindsight, it's not surprising, IIRC, his promotion to CEO was an emergency situation, after Iwata's passing, and he went on interview to say he was only sticking around to help bringing Nintendo back from the failure of the Wii U, and of course, to keep it going after Iwata's sudden passing. I'd say mission accoplished.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

 

Shibata is also stepping down from his Nintendo Europe perch. That certainly explains his absence from the last Nintendo Direct European version. 

[Chili Dawg]

Okay his business credentials are nice and all... 

But we know the real litmus test gaming CEOs need to pass...

MEMES

[Shaddy Zaphod]

If Kimishima was just around to keep things stable until Iwata was properly replaced, it makes me wonder what kind of difference in influence we'll be able to observe with Furukawa at the helm, if any. After all, Iwata was President for 13 years, I'd have to guess at least some of what we've seen the last few years still largely involved him, at least on a conceptual level.