Nintendo: The Company and its Founders - Sharyland ISD

NINTENDO
FINDING A WAY TO THE UNITED STATES
By the late 1970s, Yamauchi desperately wanted
to expand his company in the United States, and
he was convinced that Mino was the best man to
head operations there. Yoko remained firmly against
it, but Yamauchi worked on his son-in-law, who
finally accepted a job offer. Yamauchi believed that
Mino’s experience in the United States was critical
to Nintendo’s success there. And, as a member of
the Yamauchi family with the right skills, Mino
was simply the best candidate. Mino became
excited about the idea of starting the US branch
of Nintendo. He discussed it with his wife, who
recognized his desire to take the job. She was unsure,
but Nintendo’s new enterprise in the United States
was definitely on.
Yoko and Mino opened the first Nintendo of
America (NOA) office in New York in 1980, after
traveling from Vancouver in a car filled with their
belongings. They rented a place nearby in New
Jersey, still using all of their own money. The first
office the new branch rented was a small one, on
Twenty-Fifth Street and Broadway, in Manhattan.
Yoko was at work the first day, overseeing the
deliveries of office equipment.
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