The founder of “Koei” tells a secret story…Koh Shibusawa: “I never thought the game industry would become so big…”

The historical simulation game “Nobunaga’s Ambition,” set in Japan during the Warring States period and aimed at unifying the country, became a huge hit with 16 titles in the series in the 43 years since its release. Koei Tecmo Games has also released a series of other games, including the “Sangokushi” series and the “Shin-Sangoku Musou” series, which have attracted many fans overseas as well.

Yoichi Erikawa, 75, is the founder and current chairman of the holding company Koei Tecmo HD. Erikawa, also known as game producer Shibusawa Ko, has some surprising words to say.

The game industry is now said to be worth 30 trillion yen worldwide. The Japanese market accounts for 10% of that, but I had no idea that it would grow to such a large scale. I am simply astonished. ……

Mr. Kato was born in Ashikaga City, Tochigi Prefecture, in 1950. His parents ran a textile dyestuff wholesaler, and he intended to take over the family business as the third generation. After graduating from university, he worked for four and a half years at an industrial chemical trading company. However, the family business was forced to close due to the textile recession.

In 1978, at the age of 27, I founded a dye wholesaler in the hope of somehow reviving the business. The company I founded at that time was Koei (later to become Koei). I put my wish for the company to become a prosperous company into the name.

However, the difficulties of the dye business were more severe than he had imagined. The struggle continued for two years. Thinking that perhaps he lacked management skills, Erakawa turned to bookstores. He studied books by Konosuke Matsushita, Kazuo Inamori, Peter Drucker, and others. Then one day, he noticed an unfamiliar letter in the magazine section. It was the beginning of the rise of personal computer magazines.

As I looked at them and wondered what they were, I became more and more interested. They said it could be used to streamline management, so I began to want to buy a computer and try it out for myself.”

However, computers at that time were much more expensive than they are today. Then a savior appeared. His wife Keiko gave him one for his 30th birthday. The encounter goes back to when he was a student. Erikawa entered the Faculty of Commerce at Keio University and lived in a boarding house a few minutes away from Hiyoshi Station in Yokohama. His landlord was a woman whose husband had died, and she lived with her daughter, an art student. One day, as he entered a nearby pachinko parlor, a young woman with many wooden boxes filled with payouts at her feet caught his eye. She was the daughter of the landlord.

She played pachinko, mahjong, and had started investing in stocks when she was in high school. That’s my wife now.”

She had 4,000 shares of Nintendo stock, which was still a hanafuda (Japanese playing cards) maker. Some of those shares were sold and turned into personal computers.

The starting salary for a college graduate at that time was about five times as much as my starting salary,” he said. But my wife kept saying to me, ‘If you hadn’t sold your Nintendo stock at that time, you would have made …….’ (laughs)

From this point on, he became immersed in the world of computers. He learned programming languages on his own and created software needed by the company. When a computer magazine published an article on how to make a game, he began to try it himself.

At the time, what was popular were action games that competed with reflexes. But I was already over 30 years old, and I wasn’t interested in those kinds of games. I thought I would try to make a game that I would enjoy.

That game was a game based on history, a game that you could think about and enjoy. I have always loved history and grew up reading many historical novels. I thought of an interesting subject and came up with “The Battle of Kawanakajima,” in which Shingen Takeda and Kengen Uesugi fight in the Battle of Kawanakajima. I was playing a game about the battle between Shingen Takeda and Kenshin Uesugi, and it occurred to me. I wondered if there might be others like me.

But back then, there were no software dealers. So I put a small black-and-white ad in a computer magazine and started a mail order business.

Orders started pouring in. He was truly surprised when a postal worker brought him a cardboard box full of registered mail envelopes.

‘There were even letters of appreciation enclosed. It was interesting, they wrote. This made me happy. I realized that the game I made for my own enjoyment was entertaining others.”

The December 19 issue of “FRIDAY January 2, 9, and 16” and the paid version of “FRIDAY GOLD,” both of which are on sale on December 19, detail the story behind the birth of the popular “Nobunaga’s Ambition” and “Sangokushi” series, and how Erikawa came to call himself Shibusawa Ko. (Honorifics omitted in the text.)

From the January 2, 9, and 16, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY