Late-year surge aside, 2009 was a time of slight decline for Nintendo, spurred by a slide in sales for the once-booming Wii. And nobody felt that slide more than the company's former boss Hiroshi Yamauchi.
Yamauchi, who not only ran Nintendo from 1949 to 2002 but is also the company's single biggest shareholder, was not too long ago the richest man in Japan, with a personal fortune estimated at USD$7.8 billion.
Now, though, he's not the richest man in Japan. Poor Yamauchi. Still, don't shed too many tears for the man; despite dropping from first to third to seventh on Forbes' list of Japan's richest people, he still has an estimated worth of USD$3.8 billion.
Half of what he had, yes, but still enough to dry any tears.
Also making Forbes' list with $780 million was Hajime Satomi, boss of pachinko (and video game!) company Sega Sammy, at #32.
Japan's Richest [Forbes]


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