Shigesato Itoi

Who is Shigesato Itoi?

Shigesato Itoi is a Japanese, copywriter, essayist, lyricist, and game designer. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website “Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun”. He is best known outside of Japan as a game designer for his work on Nintendo's EarthBound series of games, as well as his bass fishing video game.

Itoi, writing copy for advertisements in the 1980s, established the profession among the general public in Japan. The phrases from his ads were quoted as regularly as a best-selling song would have been. Multi-talented Itoi quickly expanded his horizons into essays, lyrics, and eventually to Nintendo game creation. He is best known in the US for Nintendo's MOTHER 2, released in 1994 in Japan and in 1995 in North America.

He has voiced Satsuki's father, Tatsuo Kusakabe, in the Japanese version of the My Neighbor Totoro anime film, has been a judge on a few episodes of the Japanese shows Iron Chef and Hey! Spring of Trivia, and has also co-authored a collection of short stories titled Yume de aimashou with writer Haruki Murakami.

In 1997, Itoi met the Internet, bought his first Mac, and in 1998 opened the website “Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun”, which is the center of his activity today.