Feature: The Company That Saved Nintendo From Bankruptcy

Nintendo is a company with a long history spanning over 136 years. Not many companies, both in Japan and the rest of the world, can survive for over a century.

While many are familiar with how Nintendo went through its ups and downs during the video game era, not many are familiar with what the company went through before the Game & Watch. Not to mention, how the company was saved from the brink of bankruptcy by a small, long-time partner in Kyoto.

Today, I’ll be sharing with you a story that until now not many Nintendo fans are aware of.

This is the story of Watada Printing, the company that saved Nintendo.

A brief introduction to Nintendo’s years before entering video games

Nintendo was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Japan in 1889 to make Hanafuda, a type of playing card in Japan. In its first 80 years or so, the company was the biggest playing card maker in Japan, and expanded into different types of playing cards, including western playing cards known as “Trump” in Japan.

After World War II, changing trends among an increasingly wealthy Japanese population reduced demand for Hanafuda and other playing cards. This resulted in the company’s dwindling fortunes, leading to then Nintendo president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, looking for new business ideas while scaling down the Hanafuda business.

Early toys designed by Gunpei Yokoi, such as the Ultra Hand and Love Tester, became a huge hit and helped save the company. These successes would later lead to the development of video games, such as game arcade cabinets, Game & Watch and the Family Computer (Nintendo Entertainment System in the west).

The history of Watada Printing

Watada Printing was founded as a small printer in Kyoto in 1899, ten years after Nintendo was founded. In 1902, Watada Printing started working with Nintendo to print western playing cards. This would mark the beginning of a partnership that would endure for over a hundred years.

Besides playing cards, Watada Printing assisted with printing other Nintendo products, including other Japanese card games such as the patriotic World War II era card game “Aikoku Hyakunin Isshu”.

Saving Nintendo

Former Nintendo employee Chokan Hashimoto, the operator of the secret 84 cafe that Nintendo employees visit, shared a story passed down to him by a senior colleague during his time working at Nintendo.

During Nintendo’s financial troubles before the video game era, the company was saddled with debt and asked Watada whether it could delay payments due to them. Despite being a small company, Watada agreed to Nintendo’s request, which wasn’t easy on them at the time.

After the Famicom (Family Computer) became a huge success, Nintendo required large amounts of printed material, such as packaging and instruction manuals. A large printing company would have been the best choice to handle this task, but instead, Nintendo remembered how Watada had helped them in bad times. Nintendo asked Watada, a small printing company at the time, to handle everything they needed, despite not having the capacity to do so.

This resulted in the rapid expansion of Watada in Kyoto, and later the opening of branch offices in other parts of Japan. As a result of Nintendo insisting on relying on Watada as their main printing partner, they have become the largest printing company in Kyoto.

Even today, Watada continues to handle most of Nintendo’s printing needs. During the early years of the Pokemon TCG, it was involved in the printing of Pokemon TCG cards in Japan. The box of your Nintendo Switch was manufactured by none other than Watada. In Japan, Watada helps with the production of amiibo cards and game packaging. Almost everything that Nintendo manufactures for the Japanese market has a touch of Watada.

While Nintendo continues to be one of Watada’s most important and biggest clients, it also works with many other companies, such as Bandai Namco, SEGA, and Taito.

Conclusion

Nintendo never forgotten how Watada helped them during their time of need, and repaid them with an enduring partnership that lasts till this day. It is hard to imagine a world without Watada – how would things have turned out if they didn’t lend a hand during Nintendo’s darkest hour? The video game industry would be a very different place today.

We hope you enjoyed this story and history of Nintendo and Watada Printing.