Hiroshi Yamauchi & Nintendo
Hiroshi Yamauchi
&
Nintendo
By
Hiroshi Yamauchi was born on November 7, 1927 in Japan, by age 6 his father had
abandoned the family and Hiroshi went to live with his grandparents. by age twelve
Hiroshi had planned to study law or engineering once he had finished school but before
that could happen he found his country in the middle of World War II. Being to young to
fight he was put to work in a military factory, here it was said by some follow workers
that he has winey and spoiled. But once the war ended in Hiroshi continued what he
had planned and went to college to study law. In 1949, his grandfather suffered a
stroke. His grandfather being the president of Nintendo and having no other immediate
successor, the grandfather asked Hiroshi to assume the position of president of
Nintendo. He would have to leave college to do so and before doing so Yamauchi
stated he would only accept the position if he was the only family member working at
Nintendo. Reluctantly, Yamauchi's grandfather agreed, and died shortly thereafter. This
never the less cause the family to all but disown Hiroshi and Nintendo.
Nintendo was originally a card company that made playing cards and was started in
the 1890’s, but once Hiroshi became president he started looking to new and different
areas to grow his company. Some of the new areas included a taxi company called
Daiya, a love hotel with rooms rented by the hour, and individually portioned instant rice.
All of these ventures eventually failed. But he was able be the first to introduce the
plastic Western playing card into the Japanese market and shortly after in 1959, he
made a licensing agreement with Walt Disney for his plastic playing cards. He sold the
playing cards as a tool for party games that the whole family could enjoy. Nintendo's
Disney playing card were also accompanied by a small, thin booklet with many
&
Nintendo
By
Hiroshi Yamauchi was born on November 7, 1927 in Japan, by age 6 his father had
abandoned the family and Hiroshi went to live with his grandparents. by age twelve
Hiroshi had planned to study law or engineering once he had finished school but before
that could happen he found his country in the middle of World War II. Being to young to
fight he was put to work in a military factory, here it was said by some follow workers
that he has winey and spoiled. But once the war ended in Hiroshi continued what he
had planned and went to college to study law. In 1949, his grandfather suffered a
stroke. His grandfather being the president of Nintendo and having no other immediate
successor, the grandfather asked Hiroshi to assume the position of president of
Nintendo. He would have to leave college to do so and before doing so Yamauchi
stated he would only accept the position if he was the only family member working at
Nintendo. Reluctantly, Yamauchi's grandfather agreed, and died shortly thereafter. This
never the less cause the family to all but disown Hiroshi and Nintendo.
Nintendo was originally a card company that made playing cards and was started in
the 1890’s, but once Hiroshi became president he started looking to new and different
areas to grow his company. Some of the new areas included a taxi company called
Daiya, a love hotel with rooms rented by the hour, and individually portioned instant rice.
All of these ventures eventually failed. But he was able be the first to introduce the
plastic Western playing card into the Japanese market and shortly after in 1959, he
made a licensing agreement with Walt Disney for his plastic playing cards. He sold the
playing cards as a tool for party games that the whole family could enjoy. Nintendo's
Disney playing card were also accompanied by a small, thin booklet with many