Itoi, Shigesato

Hometown: Maebashi, Gunma, Japan

Shigesato Itoi is a famous Japanese copywriter and essayist, though 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. He is also known as the person who thought up the name Game Boy. His "normal" activities, however, center around his blog/website, Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (The Itoi Pretty-Much-Daily News), which publishes Itoi's short essays on lifestyle and spirituality and also his interviews with artists, craftsmen, businessmen, etc., which also tend to center on philosophical issues. Itoi has also co-written several books modeled on these interviews, in which he has a series of long conversations with, for example, an expert on neurology (Kaiba, The Hippocampus), about how to live as a human being in the world.

He has voiced Mei and 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 ("Let's meet in a dream") with writer Haruki Murakami. His latest book, Chiisai Kotoba o Utau Basho (A Place Where Small Words Are Sung), is an anthology of writing collected from the Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun. "Hobo Nichi" (as it is called) is currently releasing a series of T-shirts on the theme "Sentimental Territory", which feature simple drawings of cute animals with tears in their eyes. It also designs and sells a combination calendar/address book/personal notebook at the beginning of each business year (March-April).

(Source: Wikipedia, as of April 5, 2009)