Nintendo's 1989 company overview shows their bold network ambition

In today's blog post, we will explore Nintendo's 1989 company overview (会社概況). This document presents the then-century-old company poised to enter the networked information age, riding on the massive success of the Famicom and NES game consoles and their related games, as the company aimed for even greater ventures.

The overview spans sixteen pages, all printed in full color, with all text in Japanese.

The opening pages depict an aspirational image of a home console soaring across the globe, accompanied by the caption: 'Leading the world of home entertainment' (ホームエンターテインメントの世界をリードする).

The text begins with:

In 1983, the world of home entertainment entered a new era with the introduction of Nintendo's "Family Computer" or "Famicom" for short. The Famicom quickly became a household staple across Japan. In 1985, it was introduced in the United States under the name "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)," and, like in Japan, it rapidly gained popularity in American households.

But even greater things were on the horizon:

Nintendo is currently exploring the creation of "Famicom Network" to fully harness this power. The Famicom Network is a network of new gaming and communication possibilities using regular telephone lines. With this network, people can enjoy games with others from far away, engage in stock trading with information from securities companies, go shopping, reserve tickets, and more. Since the fall of 1988, we have already partnered with securities companies to offer various stock market information through "Famicom Trade," and the number of users has been steadily increasing.

The conclusion states:

As Nintendo envisions the Famicom Network expanding worldwide, we are confident that people's communication will become richer, and home entertainment will offer even more diverse and enjoyable experiences.

Next is an introduction by Nintendo's Director and President, Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内 薄). The title of the introduction is called 'Our company's direction' (当社の路線).

It begins by recounting the success of our first cartridge-based game console, the 1983 Family Computer, or Famicom for short, and its 1985 Western version, the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES:

... the "Family Computer" [...] has already spread to approximately 14 million households in Japan and the rapidly spreading "Nintendo Entertainment System" (NES) in the United States (the American version of the Family Computer), will be adopted by a combined total of several tens of millions of households in Japan and the United States by the mid-1990s.

Based on this, the company positioned itself as a key player in a new market extending beyond toys, games, and entertainment:

Our company plans to build a vast network that was previously unthinkable, using these devices [the Famicom and NES] as communication terminals within households, utilizing the telephone network. We aim to provide information that is deemed essential for household life, including entertainment, as well as financial, securities, and health management information. Furthermore, we are promoting partnerships with authorities in each field and considering ways to make various beneficial information easily and inexpensively accessible.

All of this was in placed the context of 'The advent of a highly information-oriented society.' The introduction text mentioned the word 'information' no less than eight times while using 'entertainment' only once. This was a stark shift from the company's focus until just a few years earlier.

Yamauchi-san was around 62 years old at this time, having already led the company for an astounding forty years, beginning as President at the age of 21. From 1989, he continued as Nintendo's President for another thirteen years, up until the GameCube era when he handed over his position to Satoru Iwata. He remained involved as chairman of the board of directors until his retirement in 2005 at the age of 77.

But all of that was still far into the future when this company overview was created. Let's delve into the company information provided.

Nintendo Report from the 1950s

Here is an interesting document, called the Nintendo Playing Cards Report, from a time in Nintendo's history when they were still mostly designing, manufacturing and selling playing cards. Hiroshi Yamauchi was still in his first decade as company president.

It's a 16-page company profile and product catalogue, printed in black and white, with some spot colours.

An exact publication date is not known, but based on the content it should be after 1953 and probably before 1957. So, roughly mid 1950s. This is a few years before the first Disney themed playing cards and board games ushered in the 'toy' period of the company.

The first pages of the document depict Nintendo as an international player, with Kyoto at the centre of a world map, with connections to all continents.

Key facts related to the company are presented:

• Founded: in the 22nd year of the Meiji era (1889)
• Trade name: Nintendō karuta kabushikigaisha (任天堂骨牌株式会社, or Nintendo Playing Card Company)
• Headquarters office: 60 Fukuinekamitakamatsucho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto (京都市東山区福稲上高松町60)
• Representative Director and President: Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内博)
• Capital: 30,000,000 yen (roughly 180 million yen in 2022's money)
• Floor area: site one 6,696 tsubo and site two 2,712 tsubo (totals 31,000 square meters, one tsubo equals two tatami mats)
• Branch offices: Tokyo and Osaka
• Number of employees: 423

According to the introduction text:

"We are a manufacturer specializing in playing cards and Hanafuda, a unique traditional industry. [...] our excellent products derived from new equipment and technology have been widely praised by enthusiasts. Our achievements have also continued to increase year by year. Today, we are the largest manufacturer in Japan, accounting for the majority of the production and sales of playing cards."

"Recently, with the strengthening of the synthetic resin division [...] we have spurred the increase in production of the all-plastic "Nap Card" that we were the first to make in Japan, as well as Mahjong and Domino. We have also started manufacturing other resin products and have secured a solid leadership position in the industry."

"Under the brand name Nintendo, these products permeate all over the country through a strong sales network based on long-standing strong credit. They are also exported in large quantities to North America, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, as well as to Latin America and the Middle East, contributing to the acquisition of foreign currency. [...] We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you for your continued patronage, and we ask for your continued patronage in the future."

The next pages show the various buildings and departments of the Nintendo operation in Kyoto.

In the top left corner we see the main office (本社), in the Shimogyo Ward in Kyoto. [As an aside: this is the building that was recently turned into the Hotel Marufukuro.]

This 1971 price list shows the full product range of Nintendo fifty years ago

After their early days producing mainly Hanafuda and other playing cards, and temporarily side-stepping into various other markets in the 1960s, at the end of that decade Nintendo had transformed into a toy manufacturer with a broad range of products, sold throughout Japan.

The document shown here gives a detailed insight into just how many different items the company offered at that time, from traditional games to new and innovative toys.

The document is called 'price table' ('価格表') and dates from September 1st 1971 (listed as Shōwa 46).

1971 Nintendo price table - front

It was published by the Nintendo Nagoya Sales office (任天堂名古屋営業所), one of Nintendo's four sales offices at the time (the other ones were in Sapporo, Osaka and Okayama). Together with the headquarters in Kyoto, a branch office in Tokyo and two distribution centres, these constituted Nintendo's operation. [For a company tour of Nintendo in 1970, check out this post.]

The document consists of seven thin paper pages, that are printed on one side with tables in black. In the back, a single fold-out page with colour pictures is included, that is printed on both sides.

Dimensions are 18 by 25.5 centimetres. The fold-out page is double that size, 36 by 25.5 centimetres.

The first page aptly begins with Hanafuda (花札), or 'Flower Cards', which was the company's first product, offered here in five quality versions. The top-of-the-line is Daitōryō (大統領), featuring the familiar picture of Napoleon on the wrapper, followed by, in descending price, Otafuku (お多福), Three Cranes (三羽鶴), Tengu (天狗) and City Flowers (都の花).

1971 Nintendo price table - page 1 of 7

These 'standard' Hanafuda are followed on this page by:

Nintendo company guide 2019

In 2019 Nintendo released another instalment in their (almost) yearly series of booklets created for prospective employees of Nintendo of Japan, sent out to people who applied for a job during the yearly hiring cycle in Spring.

After the unusual shape of the 2018 company guide, Nintendo returned to a more standard format for the 2019 guide, with some small surprises.

The booklet measures 25 by 17 centimeters. It has 64 pages. The front and back appear to be a very bland monochromatic white.

On closer inspection, and at the right angle, a Nintendo logo can be seen, printed in clear varnish. A little red bit is peeking out in the bottom corner.

This little corner is inviting you to peel off the white cover, and this reveals the actual front (and back) that shows a splurge of (some very familiar) faces. For a peek at the back, see the bottom of this post.

With some imagination, the design of this 'peel-off' cover can be seen to represent the Nintendo company and the Nintendo headquarters in Kyoto: calm, solid, but also distant and somewhat non-descriptive on the outside, and brimming with energy and excitement on the inside.

Nintendo company guides overview 1999-2020

Over the last twenty years, Nintendo has released a new company guide (almost) every year. These are well designed booklets about what goes on inside the Nintendo headquarters in Japan, with a lot of information and many pictures, most of which are exclusively shared in these guides. They provide an unique insight into what it is like to work at Nintendo.

In the past, I have covered a few of these company guides on this blog, and I intent to share the others as well. This overview page functions as an easy place to access these posts.

Company profiles 1993 and 1998

These two company profiles are sort of precursors of the company guides. Aimed at investors rather than employees, the are somewhat simliar in content to the company guides below, although they showcase mostly released products rather than behind the scenes stuff.

A detailed post about the 1993 company profile can be found here, and 1998 will follow later.

Company guide 1999

The first of the (known) company guides created for prospective employees was released in 1999.

More details coming (hopefully) later. If you have one of these for sale, I would love to hear from you.

Company guide 2000

More details coming (hopefully) later. If you have one of these for sale, I would love to hear from you.

Company guide 2003

After a hiatus of two years, in which no comopny guides were released, a new one appeared in 2003.

More details coming (hopefully) later. If you have one of these for sale, I would love to hear from you.

Company guide 2004

More details coming.

Nintendo leaflet from the 1970s

It wasn't until the introduction of the Game & Watch series in 1980 that Nintendo really started doing significant business outside of Japan. For the 90 years that it had existed previously, it was catering mostly exclusively to the Japanese market only.

However, in the 1960s and 1970s many efforts where already made by Nintendo to expand its business abroad, be it with limited success.

The leaflet shown here is an example of such efforts. It was most likely used to hand-out to foreign game and toy buyers, and other interested sales leads, maybe at an event like a trade show. It was recently found in the archives of the United States Patent and Trademark office.

The leaflet is foldable affair, printed in color on two two-sides, with six sections on each side.

The toys and games shown include light beam games introduced in 1976, but nothing newer, so it can be dated to the second half of the 1970s.

The title on the front clearly states Nintendo's target market: "playing cards and games for adult". At this time, Nintendo also produced many games aimed at children in it's home market Japan. But for sales abroad it choose to focus on the adult market segment, with games mostly already known in the Western world, like cards, chess and roulette.

Also keep in mind that many of the children's toy that Nintendo produced and sold in Japan where adaptations of licensed American and British games, and it did not make any sense to export these back to the West.

Tour inside Nintendo headquarters in 1970

The historic Nintendo company brochure that recently surfaced, provides a great record of its main Kyoto offices and factories as they existed in 1970.

Nintendo had just invested significantly in the development of these buildings, located in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto. Today this lot of land is still owned and used by Nintendo. However, the head office and main R&D offices have since moved to the Minami district in Kyoto, and part to Tokyo. Many of the buildings shown here no longer exist today.

Join me as we travel almost fifty years back in time!

We start with an overview picture. The building on the left are the offices.

The circular sign on the front of this building is the Marufuku logo, used by Nintendo for its card products.

Nintendo had used this logo almost from it's start in 1889, is is evident from this 1915 calendar.

The production facilities can be seen on the right. Check out that huge sign with the Nintendo logo (任天堂) on the roof of one of the buildings.

Nintendo was one of the bigger employers in this area, with a very visible presence.

The site is located close to the Tobakaido railway station. The Keihan Main Line and Nara Line both pass right next to it. A large neon sign with the text "Nintendo Trump" (任天堂 トランプ) has been put up facing the tracks, advertising these playing cards towards the streams of daily commuters.

We now start our tour inside in the office building, and enter the spacious lobby.

Nintendo Company Overview from 1970

The year 1970 was an important year in the history of Nintendo. It had just completed new offices at its headquarter location in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto and received a listing at the premiere stock market in Osaka.

To mark this moment, and attract (wholesale) customers and investors, the company produced a company overview brochure (会社概況).

Nintendo Company Overview from 1970 (front)

The brochure has 16 pages inside. It was printed in full colour.

Full layout of the brochure (front, 16 pages content, back)

The first page contains a summary of the key information about the company.

Nintendo Company Report 1993

In the days before the World Wide Web allowed companies to easily disseminate information, the main way to share company details was through print.  The document shown here is an example of this. It was aimed at the financial market in Japan: business journalists, shareholders and people interested to acquire stock in the publicly listed company.

Nintendo Company Report 1993 (front cover)

Unlike Nintendo's more recent artfully designed colorful Company Guides aimed at prospected employees, the design is business-like, with a glossy grey cover with "NINTENDO COMPANY REPORT 1993" and the Nintendo logo printed on the front in shiny silver.

The report starts with a foreword by company president Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内溥), in which he lists a number of sales highlights as well as the company's commitment to provide the best digital entertainment through a combination of hardware and software.

The next section provides an overview of the company's 104 year history. The color bars at the top use the iconic color scheme from the Super Famicom, Nintendo's most recent release.

This color scheme returns on the next spread that shows the company achievements, highlighting the hardware and software sales for Nintendo's three video game platforms at the time: Famicom (NES), Gameboy and Super Famicom (SNES).

The information listed is for units sold up to December 1992.

Units sold (since)	Hardware (Japan)	Hardware (abroad)	Software (Japan)	Software (abroad)
Famicom (1983) NES (1985)	18,000,000	41,750,000	221,930,000	265,120,000
Gameboy (1989)	8,430,000	20,520,000	53,510,000	89,060,000
Super Famicom (1990) SNES (1991)	7,390,000	11,640,000	49,650,000	43,490,000

Truly mind-boggling numbers. Famicom and NES total nearly half a billion games together (487 million to be exact)!

The Famicom (and NES) sales had plateaued at this stage at almost 60 million units sold. The sales numbers for the newer Super Famicom (and SNES) would still increase significantly from the 32 million at this point in time, to close to 50 million at end the console's life cycle.

The Gameboy also had plenty of life ahead, its sales invigorated by the launch of the Gameboy Pocket and Gameboy Color in 1996 and 1998, respectively.

Nintendo's 2015 company guide is a visual celebration of its past and present

In previous posts we have looked at various editions of Nintendo's company guide (see bottom of this post for a list). This guide is completely redesigned yearly and used by Nintendo in Japan to introduce the company to new employees. It is distributed to job applicants who take part in the yearly recruitment process at the start of the fiscal year (in April).

These guides are very interesting for Nintendo enthusiasts, as they provide a peek behind the white stone facades of the usually very closed corporation. The content focusses primarily on present achievements (recent game hardware and software) and the company's strategy for the future.

However, the guides also provide information on the company's history. Nintendo was founded over 125 years ago, and its long and rich heritage must surely be an important reason why young people choose to apply for a job at Nintendo.

The interest for the company's history seems to be growing lately, outside of company as well as within Nintendo. In recent years, these guides have also paid increasing attention to the company's past.

A few years ago, the history was dealt with in just one or two pages with a list of products and events. But the last two editions give it a much more prominent place.

Last year's guide was designed in the style of hanafuda cards Nintendo's first product that started the company back in 1889. And this year's guide even tops the previous one with even more extensive content that provides a fantastic visual celebration of Nintendo's present as as well as its past.

Nintendo company guide 2015 - cover sleeve

The guide comes in a very colorful cardboard sleeve. This sleeve is covered on both sides in many of the different versions of the Nintendo logo that the company has used over the years.

The front and back of the guide itself are also full of logos, printed in beautiful silver ink on a black background.

Nintendo takes to the air in its 2012 company guide

The Nintendo company guide from 2012, presented to new (prospective) employees in Japan, does a nice job visualizing the global impact they can expect to have, as their creations will travel the world.

Captain Mario - heading the Nintendo air fleet

Mario is presented on the front, sporting a captain suit of the imaginary NTD Airlines. It is not often that you see Mario in suit and tie, but he wears it well.

The book measures 30 by 20 centimeters and has 64 pages. Underneath the dust jacket, the book's front and back covers are decorated with nice art from (then) recent games.

The air travel theme is carried out throughout most of the book, starting with a page with some great fantasy airport signs and luggage labels.

The first part of the book contains a visual story of around ten pages, with Nintendo games and figures traveling the world.