Satoshi Tajiri is a Japanese video game designer best known as the creator of Pok�mon and the founder of video game developer Game Freak, Inc. An avid fan of arcade games, Tajiri wrote for and edited his own video gaming fanzine Game Freak with Ken Sugimori, before evolving it into a development company of the same name. Tajiri claims that the joining of two Game Boys via a link cable inspired him to create a game which embodied the collection and companionship of his childhood hobby, insect collecting. The game, which became Pok�mon Red and Pok�mon Green, took six years to complete and went on to spark a multi-billion dollar franchise which reinvigorated Nintendo's handheld gaming. Tajiri continued to work as director for the Pok�mon series until the development of Pok�mon Ruby and Sapphire, when he changed his role to simply executive producer. Tajiri has also worked for numerous big game projects, including Mario spin-offs and the Legend of Zelda. His work has earned him numerous accolades from his peers. 

August 28th, 1965 in Tokyo Prefecture (Age 59)