Nintendo Is Ruling Out A New Home in Seattle
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: February 11, 1992
After creating a stir in Japan, the Nintendo Company today revised the statements of its president that the company hoped to move its headquarters to the United States.
It said today that while it would run the company's worldwide strategy from Seattle, it would keep a formal headquarters in Kyoto.
The statements came after Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who is bidding for a controlling interest in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, said in an interview with The New York Times last week that he hoped eventually to move the game maker's headquarters to Seattle. The only question, he said at the time, "is whether the Japanese Government will let me" move the company. Mr. Yamauchi's comments came as Nintendo, which has sold millions of electronic video game units in the United States, has been attempting to portray itself as a company with deep American roots. But in bidding for the Mariners, Nintendo ran into opposition from the baseball commissioner, Fay Vincent, and from other team owners, who have said they object to ownership in the sport by investors from outside North America. New Interpretations
After Mr. Yamauchi's statements were widely reprinted in the Japanese press, Nintendo -- which has been based in Japan for a century -- scrambled to reinterpret his remarks. This morning, a company spokesman said that Nintendo's president, who is 64 years old, was "only joking." But this afternoon, after checking with Mr. Yamauchi, the company said that it was hoping to transfer to the United States all responsibility for the video game maker's world strategy.
Reached in Kyoto today, Mr. Yamauchi said that while he was quoted accurately, "what I meant is that Nintendo America will become the most important element in our world operation," with strategic planners and top executives based there. Mr. Yamauchi's son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa, who heads Nintendo's American operations, is widely expected to take over the entire company. Mr. Arakawa has lived in Seattle 15 years and indicated during negotiations for the team that he would like to stay in the United States. Embarrassed company officials seemed to be caught between their desire to press their case for the baseball team and their desire not to anger Japanese trade officials and others here.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/11/business/nintendo-is-ruling-out-a-new-home-in-seattle.html
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After waking up a little dazed I found this article while on Google news after searching the word Nintendo. I then read it assuming it was a recent article... I somehow completely missed the news archive results wording above the link... Anyways, this got me thinking that now would be the perfect time for Nintendo to make the move. By moving to the US they can enjoy the weak US dollar instead of the strong Yen which is killing their income. I know they still own some of the Mariners but not too sure they are in the controlling interest.
I found this line pretty funny...
The only question, he said at the time, "is whether the Japanese Government will let me" move the company.
