ARUKAIDA

This page is about Nintendo Company, Ltd.'s history.

Origin
Nintendo started as a small Japanese business by Fusajiro Yamauchi near the end of 1889 as Nintendo Koppai. Nintendo was originally named Marufuku. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The cards, which were all handmade, soon began to gain popularity, and Yamauchi had to hire assistants to mass produce cards to keep up with demand.

Fusajiro Yamauchi did not have a son to take over the family business. Following common Japanese tradition, he adopted his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda (Sekiryo Yamauchi, after the marriage). In 1929, Yamauchi retired from the company and allowed Sekiryo Yamauchi to take over the company as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Yamauchi established a joint venture with another company and renamed the company Yamauchi Nintendo & Company. The name “Nintendo,” spelled with the characters 任天堂, means “entrust luck to the heavens” and “do what is humanly possible and leave the rest to fate". Since the original owner of the company is deceased, the exact details of the name are not clear.　

In 1947, Sekiryo established the company Marufuku Company, Ltd., to distribute the Hanafuda cards, as well as several other brands of cards that had been introduced by Nintendo. Sekiryo Yamauchi also had only daughters, so again his son-in-law (Shikanojo Inaba, renamed Shikanojo Yamauchi) was adopted into the family. Shikanojo never became president because he left his family. Subsequently, his son Hiroshi was brought up by his grandparents. Hiroshi later took over the company instead of his father.


Nintendo Poster from late Meiji Era.


Nintendo's trump card logo.

Hotel Search

Hiroshi Yamauchi
Hiroshi Yamauchi attended Waseda University in Tokyo. However, after his grandfather died suddenly in 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi took office as the president of Nintendo. He was only 21 years old. He renamed Yamauchi Nintendo & Company to Nintendo Playing Card Company, Limited., and in 1951 he renamed their distribution company, Marufuku Company, Limited, to Nintendo Karuta Company, Limited.　In 1953, Nintendo became the first company in Japan to produce playing cards from plastic. This was a huge hit and allowed Nintendo to dominate the card market.

In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi paid a visit to the U.S.A, to engage in talks with the U.S. Playing Card Company, the dominant playing card manufacturer in the States. Yamauchi was shocked to find that the world's biggest company in his business was relegated to using a small office. This was a turning point for Yamauchi, who then realised the limitations of the playing card business.


In 1959, Nintendo struck a deal with Disney to have them allow Nintendo to use Disney's characters on Nintendo's playing cards. Previously, Western playing cards were regarded as something similar to hanafuda and mah jong: a device for gambling. By tying playing cards to Disney and selling books explaining the different games one could play with the cards, Nintendo could sell the product to Japanese households. The tie-in was a success and the company sold at least 600,000 card packs in a single year. Due to this success, in 1962, Yamauchi took Nintendo public, listing the company in Osaka Stock Exchange Second division.

Following the aforementioned success, in 1963 Nintendo Playing Card Company Limited was renamed to Nintendo Company, Limited by Hiroshi. Nintendo now began to experiment in other areas of business using the newly injected capital. During the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company, a "love hotel" chain, a food company (trying to sell instant rice, similar to instant noodles), and several other things (including a vacuum cleaner- Chiritory- which was later seen as a two-player game in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ in 2003). All these ventures failed, except toymaking, where they had some earlier experience from selling playing cards. Then the bottom dropped out. In 1964, while Japan was experiencing an economic boom due to the Tokyo Olympics, the playing card business reached its saturation point. Japanese households stopped buying playing cards, and the price of Nintendo stock tumbled from 900 yen to a meager 60 yen.

In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi as a maintenance engineer for the assembly line. It wasn't known however, that Yokoi would soon become famous for much more than his ability to repair conveyer belts.


Example of a Nintendo hanafuna card showing the company's logo at the time.

Hotel Search

Toy Company
Riddled with debt, Nintendo struggled to survive in the Japanese toy industry; it was still small at this point, and dominated by already well established companies such as Bandai and Tomy. Because of the generally short product life cycle of toys, the company always had to come up with new product. This was the beginning of a major new era for Nintendo.

In 1970, Hiroshi Yamauchi was observing a hanafuda factory. He noticed an extending arm, which was made by one of their maintenance engineers, Gunpei Yokoi, for his own amusement. Yamauchi ordered Yokoi to develop it as a proper product for the Christmas rush. Released as "The Ultra Hand", it would become one of Nintendo's earliest toy blockbusters, selling over a million units. Seeing that Yokoi had promise, Hiroshi Yamauchi pulled him off assembly line work. Yokoi was soon moved from maintenance duty to product development.

Due to his electrical engineering background, it soon become apparent that Gunpei was quite adept at developing electronic toys. These devices had a much higher novelty value than traditional toys, allowing Nintendo to charge a higher price margin for each product. Yokoi went on to develop many other toys, including the Ten Billion Barrel puzzle, a baseball throwing machine called the Ultra Machine, and a Love Tester. Another invention of his, in collaboration with Masayuki Uemoura from Sharp, was the Nintendo Beam Gun Game, the precursor to the NES Zapper.

The 1970s also saw the hiring of Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who (along with Yokoi) would become a living legend in the world of gaming and the secret to Nintendo's longevity; his creative vision was instrumental in determining the path Nintendo's future (and indeed, the industry's as a whole) would follow. Yokoi began to mentor Miyamoto during this period of time in R&D, teaching him all that he knew.


The Ultrahand was sold for 800 yen.

Hotel Search

Electronic Game
Nintendo at this time saw how successful video games were and began to dabble in them. Their first step in that field was to secure the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan, which they did in 1975. At the time, home video game consoles were extremely rare - even the seminal Atari PONG console had yet to be produced. After experiencing reasonable success at this, Nintendo began developing its own video games, both for the home and for arcades. In 1970s, Mitsubishi Electric proposed joint development of "Color TV Game Machine." In 1977, they released "Color TV Game 6" and "Color TV Game 15" (6 and 15 indicates the number of games).

Their first video arcade game was 1978's Computer Othello; a large handful of others followed in the next several years, Radar Scope and Donkey Kong being among the most famous of these. The early 1980s saw Nintendo's video game division (led by Yokoi) creating some of its most famous arcade titles. The massively popular Donkey Kong was created in 1981 with Miyamoto as its mastermind, and released in the arcades and on the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision video game systems (although Nintendo themselves generally had no involvement with these early console ports). This release method would be used on several later Nintendo arcade games of this same period, including the original Mario Bros. (not to be confused with the later Super Mario Bros.) In addition to this arcade and dedicated console game activity, Nintendo was testing the consumer handheld video game waters with the Game & Watch.


Nintendo's first video game system: the Color TV Game 6.


The Nintendo Game & Watch unit Donkey Kong.

Hotel Search

1983-1989
In July 1983, Nintendo released their Famicom (Family Computer) system in Japan, which was their first attempt at a cartridge-based video game console. The system was a booming success, selling over 500,000 units within two months. The console was also technically superior and inexpensive when compared to its competitors, priced at about $100 USD. However, after a few months of the consoles selling well, Nintendo received complaints that some Famicom consoles would freeze when the player attempted to play certain games. The fault was found in a malfunctioning chip and Nintendo decided to recall all Famicom units currently on store shelves, which cost them almost half a million USD.

By 1985, the Famicom had proven to be a huge continued success in Japan. However, Nintendo also encountered a problem with the sudden popularity of the Famicom -they did not have the resources to manufacture games at the same pace they were selling them. To combat this, Yamauchi decided to divide his employees into three groups, the groups being Research & Development 1 (R&D 1), Research & Development 2 (R&D 2) and Research & Development 3 (R&D 3). R&D 1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi, R&D 2 was headed by Masayuki Uemura, and R&D 3 was headed by Genyo Takeda. Using these groups, Yamauchi hoped Nintendo would produce a small number of high quality games rather than a large number of average quality games.

During this period of time, Nintendo rekindled their desire to release the Famicom in the USA. Since the company had very little experience with the United States market, they had previously attempted to contract with Atari for the system's distribution in 1983. However, a fiasco involving Coleco and Donkey Kong soured the relationship between the two during the negotiations, and Atari refused to back Nintendo's console. The video game crash soon took out not only Atari, but the vast majority of the American market itself. Nintendo was on its own.

Nintendo was determined not to make the same mistakes in the U.S. that Atari had. Because of massive influxes of games (games that were regarded as some of the worst ever created), gaming had almost completely died out in America. Nintendo decided that to avoid facing the same problems, they would only allow games that received their "Seal of Quality" to be sold for the Famicom, using a chip called 10NES to "lockout" or prevent unlicensed games from working.

In 1985, Nintendo announced that they were releasing the Famicom worldwide - except under a different name - the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) - and with a different design. In order to ensure the localization of the highest-quality games by third-party developers, Nintendo of America limited the number of game titles third-party developers could release in a single year to five. Konami, the first third-party company that was allowed to make cartridges for the Famicom, would later circumvent this rule by creating a spinoff company, Ultra Games, to release additional games in a single year. Other manufacturers soon employed the same tactic. Also in 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released for the Famicom in Japan and became a large success.

Nintendo test marketed the Nintendo Entertainment System in the New York area on October 18, 1985. Following immediate success, they soon began shipping the NES nationwide in February 1986, along with 15 games, sold separately. In the U.S. and Canada, it outsold its competitors on a ten to one scale. This was also the year that Metroid (Japan) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Japanese version) were released.

In 1988, Nintendo of America unveiled Nintendo Power, a monthly news and strategy magazine from Nintendo that served to advertise new games. The first issue published was July/August edition, which spotlighted the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo Power is still being published today with its two-hundredth issue recently issued in Feb. '06.

In 1989, Nintendo (which had seen a large amount of success from the Game & Watch) released the Game Boy (both created by Gunpei Yokoi), along with the accompanying game Tetris (widely considered one of the greatest and most addictive games of all time). With a good price, a popular game and durability (unlike the prior Microvision from Milton Bradley, which was prone to static and screen rot), the Game Boy sold extremely well. In fact, it eventually became the best selling portable game system of all time, a record it holds to this day. Later, Super Mario Land was also released for the Game Boy, which sold 14 million copies worldwide. 1989 was also the year that Nintendo announced a sequel to the Famicom, to be called the Super Famicom.

By the end of the 1980s the courts found Nintendo guilty of anti-trust activities because it had abused its relationship with third-party developers and created a monopoly in the gaming industry by not allowing developers to make games for any other platforms. They changed this rule during the Super NES era, allowing Sega to start a massive console war against Nintendo with the Sega Genesis and Game Gear. This would occur once more in 1996, when Sony released the PlayStation.


The Nintendo Famicom, released in 1983, received a warm welcome from the Japanese economy.


The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in 1985, One of the most popular systems of its time.

Hotel Search

1990-1995
The Super Famicom was released in Japan on November 21, 1990. The system's launch was widely successful, and the Super Famicom was sold out across Japan within three days. In August 1991, the Super Famicom was launched in the U.S. under the name "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" (SNES). The SNES was released in Europe in 1992.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System followed in the steps of its predecessor, sporting a relatively low price and somewhat high technical specifications for its era (although its processor was technically slower than the Sega Genesis it competed against). The controller of the SNES had also improved over that of the NES, as it now had rounded edges and several new buttons.

In Japan, the Super Famicom easily took control of the gaming market. In the U.S., due to a late start and an aggressive marketing campaign by Sega, Nintendo saw its market share take a precipitous plunge from 90-95% with the NES to a low of approximately 35% against the Sega Genesis. Over the course of several years, the SNES in North America eventually overtook the Sega Genesis (in annual, but not cumulative, sales figures), thanks to franchise titles such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Street Fighter 2, and the Final Fantasy series. In the U.S., the Genesis outsold the SNES. However, total worldwide sales of the SNES were higher than the Genesis.

In 1992, Gunpei Yokoi and the rest of R&D 1 began planning on a new virtual reality console to be called the Virtual Boy. Hiroshi Yamauchi also bought shares of the Seattle Mariners in 1992.

In 1993, Nintendo announced plans to develop a new 64-bit console codenamed Project Reality that would be capable of rendering fully 3D environments and characters. In 1994, Nintendo also claimed that Project Reality would be renamed Ultra 64 in the US. The Ultra 64 moniker was unveiled in arcades on the Nintendo branded fighting game Killer Instinct and the racing game Cruisin' USA. Killer Instinct was later released on the SNES. Soon after, Nintendo realized they had mistakenly chosen a name for their new console that the Konami corporation owned the rights to. Specifically, only Konami would have the rights to release games for the new system called Ultra Football, Ultra Tennis, etc. So, in 1995 Nintendo changed the final name of the system to the Nintendo 64, and announced that it would be released in 1996. They later showed previews of the system and several games, including Super Mario 64, to the media and public.

1995 is also the year that Nintendo purchased part of Rareware, a choice that would prove to be a wise investment.

In the mid-90s Nintendo of America eased up on its stringent policies on blood and violence. After Sega created the Mega CD (Sega CD in North America) add on for its 16-bit machine, Nintendo initially contracted with Sony to develop an add-on CD-ROM drive for the SNES, but afraid that Sony would get all the profit from the CD-ROM media, and also surprised at the failure of Sega's Mega CD, Nintendo terminated the contract and went with Philips. Nintendo announced their alliance with Philips at the same conference that Sony announced their CD-ROM drive. Nothing happened about the add-on drive in regard to the SNES, but Sony took the time and research and began to spin it off into a new product, the PlayStation. Philips took a similar route and developed the far less successful CD-i. Since Philips had already gained license to create games using Nintendo's exclusive characters, games from series such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda appeared on the CD-i, though most fans discard them from being part of the series due to their entirely third-party development and poor quality. The deal between Philips and Nintendo eventually fell through, and the CD-i was seen as another ill-fated attempt by Philips to enter the computer market.

In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in Japan. The console sold poorly, but Nintendo still said they had hope for it and continued to release several other games and attempted a release in the U.S., which was another disaster.

Also in 1995, Nintendo found themselves in a competitive situation. Competitor Sega introduced their 32-bit Saturn, while newcomer Sony introduced the 32-bit PlayStation. Sony's fierce marketing campaigns ensued, and it started to cut into Nintendo and Sega's market share.


The original North American SNES (circa 1991).


Nintendo released the Virtual Boy to much hype and fanfare in 1995. It was, however, unsuccessful.

Hotel Search

1996-2001
On June 23, 1996, the Nintendo 64 (N64) was released in Japan and became a huge hit, selling over 500,000 units on the first day of its release. On September 29, 1996, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in the U.S. and Canada, and it too was a success. Many feel that the advertising onslaught by Sony at this time did not truly begin to take effect until many of the consumers who held out for the N64 console became frustrated at the lack of software following the first few months after the system's release. What also greatly contributed to the extremely competitive climate that Nintendo was entrenched in was the fact that many third party companies immediately began developing and releasing many of their leading games for Nintendo's competing consoles. Many of those third party companies cited cheaper development and manufacturing costs for the CD format, versus the cartridge format. On December 1, 1999 Nintendo released an add-on to the Nintendo 64 in Japan, titled the Nintendo 64DD, although it never saw the light of day in the U.S.

Nintendo followed with the release of the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller version of the original Game Boy. About a week after the release of the Game Boy Pocket, Gunpei Yokoi resigned from his position at Nintendo. Gunpei Yokoi helped in the creation of a competitor system named the Wonderswan, utilizing the skills he gained in the creation of the Game Boy.

In 1996, Pocket Monsters (known as "Pokemon" in the North America and Europe) was released in Japan to a huge following. The Pokemon franchise (created by Satoshi Tajiri), was proving so popular in America, Europe, and Japan, that for a brief time, Nintendo took back their place as the supreme power in the games industry.

October 13, 1998 was the day that Game Boy Color was released in Japan, with releases in North America and Europe a month later. Days before Game Boy Color was released in Japan, Gunpei Yokoi - the original creator of Game Boy - died tragically in a car accident at the age of 57.

Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance in Japan on March 21, 2001. This was followed by the North American launch on June 11 and the European launch on June 22. Nintendo released their GameCube home video game console on September 14, 2001 in Japan. It was released in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002 and in Australia on May 17, 2002.


The exterior of Nintendo's main research center. It is only a few blocks away from the company's main headquarters.

Hotel Search

2002-Present
In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down as the president of Nintendo and named Satoru Iwata his successor. Also, Nintendo and Chinese-American scientist Doctor Wei Yen co-founded iQue, a company that manufactures and distributes official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market, under the iQue brand.

During this same year, Nintendo's aggressive business tactics in Europe would catch up to them. The European Commission determined that Nintendo had engaged in anticompetitive price-fixing business practices dating at least as far back as the early 90s. This resulted in a heavy fine being laid against the company- 18 million euros, one of the largest antitrust fines applied in the history of the commission.[

In May of 2004, Nintendo announced plans to release a new brand of handheld, unrelated to the Game Boy - featuring two screens, one of which was touch-sensitive. The Nintendo DS, released on November 21, 2004, received over three million pre-orders. In addition to the touch screen, the DS can also create three-dimensional graphics, similar to those of the Nintendo 64, although its lack of hardware support for texture filtering results in more pixelated graphics than on the Nintendo 64.

President Satoru Iwata merged all of Nintendo's software designers under the EAD division; this was done to allocate more resources to Shigeru Miyamoto. As of 2005 Nintendo's internal development divisions are comprised of the following four groups :

Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development Tokyo
Nintendo Integrated Research & Development
Nintendo Software Production & Development
Nintendo Technology & Development
On May 14, 2005, Nintendo started up its first retail store accessible to the general public, Nintendo World, at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. It consists of two stories, and contains many kiosks of GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. There are also display cases filled with things from Nintendo's past, including Hanafuda playing cards, Nintendo's first product. They celebrated the grand opening with a block party at Rockefeller Plaza.

At E3 in May of 2005, Nintendo displayed the first prototype for their 'next-generation' system, codenamed the Nintendo Revolution (now known as the Wii), though hiding its controller until the Tokyo Game Show later that year.

On January 26, 2006, Nintendo announced a new version of their Nintendo DS handheld, called the Nintendo DS Lite, which is designed to be smaller and lighter and feature a brighter screen. It was launched in Japan on March 2, 2006.

On May 25, 2006, Reggie Fils-Aime was promoted to President and COO of Nintendo of America, Inc. The then President Tatsumi Kimishima was promoted to Chairman of The Board and CEO.

On June 11, 2006, Nintendo released their update to the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo DS Lite, in North America, also on this day Nintendo opened its official US press site to the public which continued until June 17, 2006.

On June 23, 2006, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS Lite in Europe.

On July 7, 2006, Nintendo officially established a South Korean subsidiary, Nintendo Korea, in the country's capital, Seoul, which replaced Daiwon as the official distributor of Nintendo products in South Korea.

In early August of 2006, it was revealed that the Nintendo corporation (along with Microsoft) was the target of a patent-infringement lawsuit. Levelled by the Anascape corporation, the suit claims that Nintendo's use of analog technology in their remote game controllers constitutes a violation of their patents. Microsoft is also named in the lawsuit, for the same reasons. The lawsuit seeks to bring damages to both corporations and possibly force them to stop selling controllers with the violating technology; this is similar to the earlier lawsuit against Sony by the Immersion corporation.

In mid-September 2006, during press conferences held in Tokyo, New York, and London on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, respectively, Nintendo announced launch details for its Wii console, as well as demonstrated features of the console's "Wii Channels" GUI. The Retail price was going for $249.99 US and was released on Nov 19th 2006. The console is selling fast and is a big breakthrough for Nintendo and picks up the pace lost from their last console, the GameCube. The Wii was releaced in Europe at £179.99.


References
Nintendo fined for price fixing. BBC News (2002-10-30). Retrieved on 2007-03-11.

Hotel Search

AIFUL Corporation (アイフル株式会社, Aifuru Kabushiki-gaisha) (TYO: 8515 ) is one of the largest Japanese consumer finance companies. Currently the company is based in Kyoto and has annual profits of close to \100 billion on over \2 trillion worth of loans.


AIFUL IR corporate logo

History
Aiful was established in April, 1967 by Yoshitaka Fukuda as a sole-proprietorship. In 1978, this small company was reformed in Kyoto as Marutaka, Inc. and opened its first four branches to expand its consumer-finance business. The company continued to grow over the next five years and it acquired three small companies in the same business segment and renamed itself Aiful in 1983. These mergers gave the company over \90 million in capital and a growing market share in the consumer loan sector. Soon afterward, the company began to offer home-equity and small business loans. During the 1980s and up to the present day, the company has continued to expand by finding new investment opportunities, particularly real estate, engaging in mergers to increase its market share.

Today the company offers a wide range of consumer financial services, ranging from issuing credit cards to providing home equity loans. Additionally, the company provides small business loans and until recently operated a chain of karaoke parlors and Taiwanese-style restaurants. The company has 1,572 branches (many of them automated machines similar to ATMs) throughout Japan and currently employs over 3000 people.


Headquarters of AIFUL Corporation in Shimogyo, Kyoto, Japan

Criticism
The company has many techniques to promote repayment that some have viewed as unscrupulous, but have resulted in a low default rate for the bank. Additionally, the company has been charged by some individuals with exploiting the financial problems of some consumers by offering high-rate loans that must be secured by collateral, often the individual's real estate. This may lead to loss of consumer's homes and has led to allegations that the company is a sarakin or a loan shark. Several advocacy groups have been formed for those who feel victimized by such practices.

In 2006 regulators in japan ruled against the lending practices of the consumer finance sector and revised the maximum legal lending rate to 18.75% (down from a previous legal limit of 29%). Furthermore this ruling enabled consumers to claim back the interest they have been overcharged from companies like Aiful for a period of up to 10 years back, which forces them to make high provisions for these reimbursements on their balancesheet. On April 14, 2006 the FSA has issued a business suspension order that forced Aiful to shut down domestic operations for 3 business days and in some areas up to 25 days.

Advertising
In contrast with the more staid image of the more traditional banks, Aiful and other consumer finance companies attempt to have a livelier image. For example, the signs and logos of Aiful and its subsidiaries are often very colorful and eye-catching, seeking to draw passersby into loan outlets. Recent advertisement campaigns have featured Chihuahua TV ads and special loans marketed towards women. Additionally, Aiful and other consumer finance companies often distribute packages of tissues at mass transit stations.

Aiful Corp. (in Japanese)
Aiful Corp. IR info (in English)
Consumer loans for women

Hotel Search

Horiba (堀場製作所, Horiba Seisaku-sho) is a Japanese manufacturer of precision instruments for measurement and analysis. They have 80% of the world market for instruments that measure and analyze exhaust gas, and also make instruments for environmental, medical and scientific applications. Up to 2002, Hitachi was the principal shareholder, and the two companies retain close connections.

Horiba has its headquarters in Minami-ku, Kyoto. The company was established in 1953.

The company had sales of about 106,000 million Japanese yen and employed 4,461 people in 2006.

Horiba in Japanese and English

Hotel Search

Nichicon Corporation (ニチコン株式会社, Nichikon Kabushiki-gaisha) (TYO: 6996 ) is a manufacturer of capacitors of various types and applications and is one of the largest manufacturers of capacitors in the world, headquartered in Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan. In 1950, it separated from the Nii Works Co., established itself as Kansai-Nii Works and finished its first factory by 1956. In 1961, they adopted the Nichicon name and have been using it, or a variant thereof, ever since. They have produced capacitors designed for several hundred different applications and have had their products used by almost every major electronics manufacturer in the world, from cell phones and computers to speakers and stereos.

As of late, they have been spinning off many of their major factories into independent subsidiaries, establishing representative branches in foreign countries and realigning their corporate infrastructure.


Nichicon Building in Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto

(English) Nichicon Corporation

Hotel Search

In the past, Nintendo has been fined for price fixing practices , especially in Europe, where the European Union claimed that prices of Nintendo's products were too high .

References
Company History (Japanese). Nintendo of Japan. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.
Company History. Nintendo of America. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
Nintendo History Lesson: The Lucky Birth. N-sider. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
Behrens, Matt (2006-12-01). Nintendo sales through end of November revealed. N-Sider. N-Sider Media. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
Classic Systems-Nintendo Entertainment System (html). Nintendo. Retrieved on February 11, 2006.
Nick Wingfield and Yukari Iwatani Kane, Wii and DS Turn Also-Ran Nintendo Into Winner in Videogames Business, Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2007
Nintendo Profits Up 77 Pct. on Wii Sales, Associated Press, April 26, 2007.
Darkain (2005-01-21). Nintendo DS - WI-FI vs NI-FI. Retrieved on 2006-04-02.
Nintendo DS Frequently Asked Questions. Nintendo. Retrieved on 2006-04-02.

Nintendo Japan
Nintendo of America
Nintendo Europe
Nintendo Australia (also New Zealand)
Nintendo of Canada
Nintendo of Korea
The Official Nintendo Magazine (UK)
Nintendo Power
Detailed Nintendo history
Nintendopedia

Hotel Search

Nintendo Company, Limited (NCL), the main branch of the company, is based in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan (34°58'11.89"N 135°45'22.33"E). Nintendo of America (NOA), its American division, is based in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. It has distribution centers in Atlanta, Georgia, and North Bend, Washington. Nintendo of Canada, Ltd. (NOCL) is based in Richmond, British Columbia, with its own distribution centre in Toronto, Ontario. Nintendo of Australia, its Australian division, is based in Melbourne, Victoria, and Nintendo Europe, the European division, is based in Großostheim, Germany. iQue, Ltd., a Chinese joint venture with its founder, Doctor Wei Yen, and Nintendo, manufactures and distributes official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market, under the iQue brand. Nintendo also opened Nintendo of Korea (NoK) on July 7, 2006.


The exterior of Nintendo's main headquarters in Kyoto, Japan

Hotel Search

Game Boy Camera - a monochrome camera cartridge for the original version of the Game Boy, includes a simple picture editor and ability to print pictures via Game Boy Printer
Broadcast Satellaview - Only released in Japan, an add-on for the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) that allowed anyone to download games by a satellite.
Game & Watch - A series of handheld games made by Nintendo from 1980 through 1991.
Game Boy Player - An adapter for playing Game Boy games on the GameCube.
Game Boy Printer - An adapter designed for printing things from the Game Boy. It was used for printing out Pokemon information from the Pokedex in the Game Boy Pokemon games.
iQue Player - A version of the Nintendo 64, with double the clock speed and downloadable games, released only in the Chinese market.
iQue DS - A version of the Nintendo DS, release only in China.
Nintendo 64DD - Only released in Japan, this add-on system's games are on re-writable magnetic disks. Games released include a paint and 3D construction package, F-Zero X Expansion Kit, for creating new F-Zero X tracks, a sequel to the SNES version of SimCity, SimCity 64 and a few others. A complete commercial failure, many speculated that Nintendo released it only to save face after promoting it preemptively for years.
Pokemon Mini - Unveiled in London at Christmas 2000, the Pokemon Mini was Nintendo's cheapest system ever produced; with games costing £10 ($15) each, and the system costing £30 ($45). This remains the smallest cartridge-based games console ever made. Sales of this system were rather poor, but, unlike the Virtual Boy, Nintendo made a profit on every game and system sold.
Mobile System GB - Released in Japan, December 14, 2000. The Mobile System is an adapter to play Game Boy Color games on the cell phone. The game Pokemon Crystal was the first game to take advantage of the Mobile System. Someone can hook an adapter to their Game Boy and connect it to a mobile phone which people can receive news, trade, and battle with other players across Japan.
Pokemon Pikachu - A handheld device similar to the popular Tamagotchi toy that allowed the user to take care of Pikachu in the manner of a pet.
Super Game Boy - Adapter for playing Game Boy games on the Super NES, which would be displayed in color.
Triforce - An arcade system based on Nintendo GameCube hardware, developed in partnership with Sega and Namco.
Virtual Boy - The Virtual Boy used an array of red LED's combined with two motor-driven mirrors to display graphics in 3D. The resulting images were displayed in varying shades of red and black. Fewer than two dozen games were released for it in the United States. It is the only Nintendo game system to be a commercial failure.
Yakuman - A handheld Mah-jong game released in 1983.

Hotel Search

The Nintendo DS (sometimes abbreviated NDS or DS, also as iQue DS in China) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo, released in 2004. It is visibly distinguishable by its horizontal clamshell design, which is almost a throwback to the Game & Watch, and the presence of two displays, the lower of which acts as a touch screen. The system also has a built-in microphone and supports wireless IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) standards, allowing players to interact with each other within short range (30-100 feet, depending on conditions) or over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.

The letters "DS" in the name stand for Developers' System, which refers to the features of the handheld designed to encourage innovative gameplay ideas among developers. Nintendo stated that it can also stand for Dual Screen. The system was known as Project Nitro during development.

On March 2, 2006, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS Lite, a redesigned model of the Nintendo DS, in Japan. It was later released in North America, Australia and Europe.

The Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite have sold over 37 million systems as of February, 2007, outselling (at this point) its main rival, the PlayStation Portable by four DS (Lite) to one PSP.


The Nintendo DS Lite

Hotel Search

The Game Boy (ゲームボーイ, Gemu Boi) line is a line of battery-powered handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. It is one of the world's best-selling game system lines, with more than 188 million hardware units sold worldwide. The original Game Boy has sold 70 million units, while the Game Boy Color sold 50 million units. The Game Boy Advance has managed to sell over 76.79 million units as of September 30, 2006. This latter system underwent two revisions without changing its game-playing functionality: a smaller SP model, which was the first Game Boy to including a back-lit screen and rechargeable battery, and an even smaller micro variant with a higher-quality backlit screen.


The Game Boy Advance SP

Hotel Search

The Nintendo GameCube was Nintendo's sixth generation game console, the same generation as Sega's Dreamcast, Sony's PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox. Right up until the console's unveiling at SpaceWorld 2000, the design project was known as Dolphin- this can still be seen in the console and its accessories' model numbers. The GameCube itself was the most compact and least expensive of the sixth generation era consoles. The GameCube was the first Nintendo game console to use optical discs rather than game cartridges. An agreement with the optical drive manufacturer Matsushita led to a DVD-playing GameCube system named the Panasonic Q, which was only released in Japan.

The Nintendo GameCube has sold over 21.20 million systems as of September 30, 2006.


The Nintendo GameCube

Hotel Search

The official name of the main shrine of Naikū is Kotaijingu and is the place of worship of the goddess Amaterasu-omikami. The grounds of Naikū contain a number of structures, including the following:

The Uji Bridge
This 100 meter wooden bridge in traditional Japanese style stretches across the Isuzu river at the entrance of Naikū. Like the shrine buildings of Naikū, it is rebuilt every 20 years as a part of the Shikinen Sengu ceremony. On crossing the bridge, the path turns to the right along the banks of the Isuzu river and passes through large landscaped gardens.

Temizusha
After crossing a short, wide bridge, pilgrims to the shrine encounter the Temizusha, a small, roofed structure containing a pool of water for use in ritual purification. Visitors are encouraged to wash their hands and rinse their mouths at Temizusha as a symbolic act to clean the mind and body of impurity. The first of two large torii gates stands just beyond the Temizusha.


Temizusha, for ritual purification

Saikan and Anzaisho
After passing the first large torii gate, the Purification Hall (Saikan) and the Hall for visitors from the Imperial Household (Anzaisho) can be seen to the left. The Saikan is used by shrine priests to purify themselves before performing ceremonies at the shrine. They are required to spend one or two nights to free their minds of worldly issues, partaking in baths and eating meals cooked with the sacred fire.

Kaguraden
This hall for special prayer, located just after the second large torii gate, is open to the public for the offering of individual prayers to the kami, the giving of donations and the purchase of special talisman of protection, amulets and hanging scrolls of Amaterasu Omikami.

Imibiyaden
This hall contains the sacred fire used to cook all of the food offerings to the kami of Ise Shrine. Rice and other offerings cooked on the sacred fire are stored in a box made of Japanese cypress, then purified at the Haraedo immediately in front of the Imibiyaden before being offered to the kami.

Kotaijingu - the main shrine
The pilgrimage path then approaches the main shrine of Naikū by a set of large stone steps. Though the actual shrine is hidden behind a large fence, pilgrims can approach the gate to offer their prayers. Photographs in this area are prohibited and this restriction is strictly policed.

Kotaijingu is said to hold the Sacred Mirror, one of three sacred items given to the first emperor by the gods. From a path that follows the line of the outer wall, the distinctive roof of the shrine building can be seen through the trees. In front of the walled shrine compound can be seen an open area which will be the location of the next rebuilding of the shrine in 2013.

Ise Shrine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“伊勢神宮” video results

Category:National Treasures of Japan

Hotel Search

From the late 7th century, when the festivals and offerings of Ise Shrine became more formalised, a number of annual events have been performed at both Naikū and Gekū. The Tukinamisai, which was held in June and December, as well as the Kannamesai in September, were the only three offerings performed by the Saio, an imperial princess who served as high priestess of the shrine until the 14th century. These offerings are based on the cycle of the agricultural year and are still performed today.

The first important ceremony of the modern calendar year is the Kinensai, where prayers are offered for a bountiful harvest. Kannamesai, where prayers for fair weather and sufficient rains are made, is held twice a year in May and August at both Naikū and Gekū.

The most important annual festival held at Ise Shrine is the Kannamesai Festival 神嘗祭. Held in October each year, this ritual makes offerings of the first harvest of crops for the season to Amaterasu. An imperial envoy carries the offering of rice harvested by the Emperor himself to Ise, as well as five-coloured silk cloth and other materials, called Heihaku.

Besides the agricultural ceremonies already mentioned, ceremonies and festivals are held throughout the year at both Naikū and Gekū to celebrate such things as the new year, the foundation of Japan, past emperors, purification rituals for priests and court musicians, good sake fermentation and for the Emperor's birthday. There are also daily food offerings to the shrine kami held both in the mornings and evenings.


Okihiki Festival showing the wood to be used to build the next shrine. (May 2007)

Ise Shrine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“伊勢神宮” video results

Category:National Treasures of Japan

Hotel Search

The shrine buildings at Naikū and Gekū, as well as the Uji Bridge, are rebuilt every 20 years as a part of the Shinto belief of the death and renewal of nature and as a way of passing building techniques from one generation to the next. The next scheduled rebuilding of Ise Shrine is due in 2013.

In the lead-up to the rebuilding of the shrines, a number of festivals are held to mark special events. The Okihiki Festival is held in the spring over two consecutive years and involves people from surrounding towns dragging huge wooden logs through the streets of Ise to Naikū and Gekū. In the lead-up to the 2013 rebuilding, the Okihiki festival was held in 2006 and 2007. A year after the completion of the Okihiki festival, carpenters begin preparing the wood for its eventual use in the Shrine.

Ise Shrine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“伊勢神宮” video results

Category:National Treasures of Japan

Hotel Search