Emarian

In June 2005, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down as chairman of Nintendo's board of directors. The move was an end of an era, since he had been at the top of the Mario Factory's corporate hierarchy since he took over as president of the then-playing-card company in 1949. He approved the creation of the original Famicom, better known as the NES, helping usher in the console era.



Since his retirement, Yamauchi has spent his time funding the construction of a poetry museum. The past two years have also seen the game industry statesman become one of Japan's wealthiest people. According to the latest issue of Forbes Asia, Yamauchi, 79, has holdings worth around 580 billion yen, or $4.8 billion.

Yamauchi is now the third-richest man in Japan, behind Softbank Corp. founder Masayoshi Son (worth $5.45 billion) and Tokyo real estate magnate Akira Mori (worth $5.5 billion). The near-octogenarian rose 11 places in the rankings thanks to Nintendo's stock tripling in value over the past year on the success of the Wii and DS.

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