Last year, Masahiro Sakurai ended his long running Youtube series “Creating Games”, which he worked in in-between game projects.

Following its finale, the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs has named Sakurai as one of the recipients for their Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists. This award is given to “persons whose outstanding achievements have opened up new vistas in a given year”.

While Sakurai is far from being a “New Artist” in the industry, the Agency explained that he is being given the award for his work on the aforementioned Youtube series, which made a “significant contribution to the development of the games industry”.

” Masahiro Sakurai has made a significant contribution to the development of the game industry by sharing his knowledge of game production widely through YouTube in an easy-to understand, accessible format with a coherent storyline. An English version has also been released, and its influence has spread not only domestically but also internationally, and we believe that this is enough to earn him the Art Encouragement Prize.”

Over on social media, Sakurai had this to say about being given the award:

“I was recently selected as the recipient of the AMD Award for Lifetime Achievement, and now I’ve been awarded the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Art Encouragement Prize,” Sakurai wrote. “Does this mean that I can call myself a cultural person? Thank you!”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.