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Shigeru Miyamoto Becomes 1st Game Creator to be Honored With Japan's Order of Culture Award (Updated)

Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced on Thursday the eight recipients for this year's prestigious Order of Culture award, and Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda) has become the first person in the gaming industry to receive the honor. The order is awarded to those "who have made outstanding contributions in developing" Japanese culture.

Update: Composer Shunichi Tokura (theme song and insert song composer for anime such as Devilman, His and Her Circumstances, GUNxSWORD, Maria Holic Alive, Natsu no Arashi!, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, among others), will also be honored with this year's Order of Culture award.

At a press conference at Nintendo in Kyoto, Miyamoto stated that as games are created by not just one person, but by many collaborating together, he honors their work with this award.

The Emperor will present Miyamoto with the award on November 3, Japan's Culture Day.

Miyamoto is the main designer of the first incarnations of some of Nintendo's most celebrated, well-known, and long-running game franchises, including Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, and Star Fox, and continued to be a main designer for some of those franchise's later games. He also helped shape the concept behind the Wii, one of Nintendo's most successful console platforms. He has the title of Representative Director and Creative Fellow at Nintendo.

Miyamoto earned Japan's Person of Cultural Merit honor in 2019. He also earned Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in the category of Communications and Humanities in 2012.

Sources: Nikkei, Denfaminico Gamer's X/Twitter account