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Hiroshi Yamauchi

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (November 7, 1927-September 19, 2013)
    Born in Kyoto, Japan
    President of Nintendo (1949-2002)
    Bought a majority share of the Seattle Mariners (1992)
    Worth $2.5 billion

Why he might be annoying:

    He ran the company autocratically.
    After becoming president, he forced all other relatives out of the company.
    His early attempts to diversify Nintendo -- including a taxi company, marketing individual portions of instant rice, and opening a 'love hotel' that rented rooms by the hour -- almost drove the company into bankruptcy.
    He said about playing video games, 'I have better things to do.'
    He never attended a single Mariners game.
    He rarely got involved with charities, saying, 'I think I'm involved in community service sufficiently. I'm the biggest individual taxpayer in Kyoto.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    His father abandoned the family when he was four.
    He guided Nintendo's transformation from a small playing card company to a multi-billion dollar video game company.
    To spur creativity, he divided the research and development department into three groups that competed with each other.
    Despite not playing video games, he had a knack for identifying which games would be popular.
    His purchase of the Mariners kept the team from moving to Florida.
    When he retired, he refused to accept his pension (estimated at $9-14 million), saying Nintendo could put the money to better use.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 14 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 10.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 119 Votes: 61.34% Annoying