Otaku USA Magazine
Scholarly Conference Ponders Nintendo’s Impact on Society
by Matt Schley July 6, 2015

Talk about taking video games seriously: Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University recently held a conference debating the impact Nintendo has had on society.

The original Nintendo Entertainment System was released in America in 1985, making 2015 the console’s 30th birthday. The Japanese equivalent, the Family Computer System (Famicom) was released two years earlier.

The Famiconfererence was held in Kyoto, the same city where Nintendo itself is based, and dealt with topics like the Japaneseness of Super Mario Bros. and why the Famicom and NES have very different form factors.

Ritsumeikan University is home to the Center for Games Studies, which opened in April 2011.

How have the Famicom or its successors influenced you?

For more information about the conference, check out the original article in the Asahi Shinbun.

Games 834Japan 236Nintendo 163conference 2event 29famicom 1impact 1kyoto 5news 6059ritsumeikan 1scholar 1society 1university 5
Matt Schley

Matt Schley (rhymes with "guy") lives in Tokyo, and has been OUSA's "man in Japan" since 2012. He's also written about anime and Japanese film for the Japan Times, Screen Daily and more.

View all posts by Matt Schley

Comments