Akihiro Yokoi The Creator of Tamagotchi

Akihiro Yokoi The Creator of Tamagotchi

In July 1997 Yokoi was revealed to be the creator of Tamagotchi. While Aki Maita was a part of the development team and previously shown to be the "face" of Tamagotchi - The true inventor is really Akihiro Yokoi.

The following is from an older information page about Akihiro Yokoi that can only be found in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. I'm recreating it here because I like what he says and worry it may get lost in Tamagotchi history. This is Google Translated and thus is very likely not a perfect representation of the Japanese page. But you can understand what he means. Go here to see the original page.

Akihiro Yokoi, the creator of Tamagotchi, which has become a social phenomenon, is a hitmaker in the toy industry.

The first Tamagotchi 40million pieces, "Digimon" eight million pieces. In addition, one million talking dolls "Primopuel". It has caused a number of booms.

In his 30s, he became independent from a major toy manufacturer, and Yokoi started a company that planned toys by himself, but there was a time when it was not sold for ten years until he made a big hit with "Tamagotchi".

This word has been supporting Yokoi since those difficult times.

I will not fail. Because they won't stop until they succeed.

"I've always felt it when I was a salaryman and a student, but my efforts and results are not necessarily proportional. To some extent, the results are obtained according to the effort, but suddenly you hit something like a wall. That's why there are so many people who give up there. However, if you are patient, you can suddenly get over it.

Yokoi experienced this feeling with his hobby guitar. There was a phrase that I was learning the guitar and could not play. I can't play even if I practice enough to get carpal tunnelitis for four hours a day. So I stayed there for three days. When I saw it in my hand, I played it well. After all, if people are cooked too much, they may not be able to do it. On the other hand, the power of the amount of time that he continued to practice is properly accumulated. However, there was so much power that I could not get over what I could not get over. I wonder if the power that had been stored came out at the moment when the power was out."

Because he had such an experience, even in an era when he could not sell, he said that he had not lost the confidence that "what I am doing now will definitely see the light of day" and "I will definitely succeed".

"No matter how much you fail, if you don't recognize it as a failure, you can continue to challenge it. I have always done so, and I will continue to do my best, never giving up, and I will do my best."

In 1997, Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita received the Ig Nobel Prize for their work on Tamagotchi - credited as "The Father and Mother of Tamagotchi".

Akihiro Yokoi has since retired in August 2016. You can learn more about Akihiro on his Youtube page.

The information and photos above I credit to the following pages:

Please Note: For years I believed that the creator of Tamagotchi was Aki Maita. I have since that time learned that she was the "face" of the Tamagotchi brand when it was initially released. So while the information was correct at the time I published this page, it turned out to be not the full truth. While she was part of the development team, she was not the creator. I am not sure why Bandai did this, but I apologize for keeping this page online for so long with the wrong information. The old information is below.

The "Face" of Tamagotchi at the Release in 1996
Bandai's Story of Aki Maita
As told the way it was back in 1996

Aki Maita was 31 years old when she joined the toy kingdom of Bandai in 1990. Later she was in charge of the business development and marketing department.

Aki said she had always loved to keep pets. That's why she designed Tamagotchi - a virtual pet that can be brought to anywhere with you.

In the process of designing Tamagotchi, Aki made trips to the crowded shopping areas of Tokyo many times and conducted street questionnaire surveys. She also read all the high school girl magazines trying to learn what the young girls are thinking.

However, Aki's own Tamagotchi seldom lives longer than its baby stage. This poor mother! -- Courtesy of Apple Daily

In the March 1998 issue of the English magazine "Loaded", there is a full page interview with Aki Maita, the "inventor" of the Tamagotchi.

Tamagotchi was available in over 30 countries and there were nearly 400 licensed products associated with Tamagotchi.

Aki believes that the longest she has kept a Tamagotchi alive was 31 years, (thereby contradicting Bandai’s official figure), but states that "it's a confidential matter how long they can actually stay alive for".

She states that DigiMon is "more specifically aimed at boys" because "boys like to fight", and that "Tamagotchi was aimed at everyone, but maybe more girls liked it". She does back up her assertion about girls preferring Tamagotchi by saying that BanDai market research shows that about 60% of Tamagotchi sales were to girls.

Pathfinder posted this article years ago. I recreated it on my server, in case pathfinder decides to take it down.

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