Kimishima on why he’s stepping down as Nintendo president and choosing Furukawa as his successor
Last week, Tatsumi Kimishima announced that he’s stepping down as Nintendo president. Though it was initially surprising, it was somewhat expected. Kimishima was always intended to be more of a temporary replacement for the late Satoru Iwata, who passed away in 2015.
Kimishima spoke more about the decision to step down during the Q&A portion of Nintendo’s financial results briefing last week, stating that his primary role was to guide Switch to a successful launch and change Nintendo’s “directorial structure to speed up decision-making and execution on a variety of projects that members of the management team were considering at the time.” Kimishima said of retiring as president, “With the breadth of projects we are working on, now is the time to transfer power further to new people and to promote a generational shift to bring stronger momentum to Nintendo through these changes.”
Below are Kimishima’s full words on leaving the presidency and choosing Shuntaro Furukawa as his successor:
“I was asked about my duties when I took over as president while Nintendo Switch was still in development, and one of my biggest responsibilities at the time was to launch that platform and get it to consumers just as we had envisioned. My second role was to change our directorial structure to speed up decision-making and execution on a variety of projects that members of the management team were considering at the time. It takes people to support that, and it was essential that we build a structure that allowed the new generation to play an active role.
As we progressed with delegating authority, including the authority for corporate governance, we created a system where our younger senior managers would be able to act. In the past two-plus years, they have shown what they are capable of accomplishing. Our latest financial results are far better than I originally forecasted, which speaks to the fruits of our efforts to date. My successor, Mr. Furukawa, worked with me as General Manager of the Corporate Planning Department to advance our operations. He has fully fleshed out what this non-traditional collective leadership system we created will be, so I believe this is the perfect time (for a change of president).
With the breadth of projects we are working on, now is the time to transfer power further to new people and to promote a generational shift to bring stronger momentum to Nintendo through these changes.”
