Takashi Tezuka Will Remain At Nintendo As A Producer After Retiring From Executive Officer Position

Earlier this year, we learned that Takashi Tezuka would be retiring from his position as Executive Officer at Nintendo Japan in June 2026.

While it was assumed at the time that he would be leaving the company completely, the latest shareholder Q&A at Nintendo clarified that he would only be retiring from the Executive Officer position. At least for now, he will be remaining at the company as a producer, meaning that he will still be involved making games at Nintendo.

Question: Please explain the reasons for Mr. Tezuka’s resignation as Executive Officer, and detail his future involvement with Nintendo. I would also like to hear a few words from him personally.

Shuntaro Furukawa: Mr. Tezuka joined our company in 1984, and has been involved in the development of countless games, starting with Super Mario Bros. for the Family Computer / Nintendo Entertainment System. He is stepping down as Executive Officer upon the expiration of his term, but he plans to keep being involved in our company’s development efforts.

Takashi Tezuka: If I were to sum up my 42 years at the company in a single sentence, I think it would be something along the lines of “I have had a lot of fun at work.”

When I first joined the company, the tools required to create games were not widely available, so everything began with the joy of building everything from scratch ourselves. Nowadays, working within a large-scale development organisation, there is the satisfaction of creating products by pooling the knowledge of many different people.

Furthermore, thinking about how to apply new technologies that continually emerge — such as 3D, stereoscopic 3D, and motion capture for example — to game development brings me a sense of joy and makes me feel like I could keep working as a game developer indefinitely without every tiring of it, and that’s what I intend to do in the future.

Working at Nintendo involves the entire company teaming up to develop products that many people can enjoy, manufacture them, and then deliver them to customers — all while being flexible and adapting to changes in the industry. I truly feel fortunate I work at a company that makes this possible.

Although I am stepping down as an Executive Officer, I plan to continue working at Nintendo as producer. I am grateful I was given this opportunity to address you on this occasion.

Tezuka has had a hand in many of Nintendo’s flagship series, including  Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Yoshi, Luigi’s Mansion, Animal Crossing, and more. In that sense, its a bit of a relief to know he will be continuing with the company for a little while longer.

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