Long serving director at Nintendo, Nobuo Nagai, passes away

One of Nintendo’s longest serving staff members has passed.

Nintendo has announced today that Nobuo Nagai, Senior Managing Director and Representative Director at Nintendo Japan has passed away. Up until the time of his death which was yesterday, he was the Senior Managing Director and Representative Director at Nintendo Japan.

Mr Nagai had been working at Nintendo since 1976, just short of 36 years, an amazing feat for anyone. In 2000 he become a Director at the company, and then a Managing Director in 2002. Just two years later he moved to Senior Managing Director and Representative Director roles. The names of the roles are very vague, however it means he was in charge of the division that develops handhelds. The Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, DS Lite, DSi and 3DS—he would have been the man in charge of all of them.

There isn’t too much press about Mr Nagai; he seemed to be a shy person with his name only mentioned by President Satoru Iwata a few times. It really isn’t too shocking; not every director of every company is in the spotlight.

Nobuo Nagai passed away aged 66. It’s sad to say we don’t know much about his work, but if he was in charge of the handheld division then we kind of know what his work resulted in and that’s some good work.