{"id":41598,"date":"2024-12-17T16:42:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T07:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=41598"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:58:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T07:58:14","slug":"nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/","title":{"rendered":"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.falcom.co.jp\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/275f0498aa7fb5b7ca617dec37f09587.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notice<\/a> to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom&nbsp;announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March 1981, Kato founded Nihon Falcom Corporation, which started producing PC software the next year. The company went on to play a formative role in the JRPG genre, establishing beloved franchises like Ys, The Legend of Heroes and the Trails spin-off series.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kato was Nihon Falcom\u2019s president until 2001, after which he became the chairman of the company\u2019s board of directors. Nihon Falcom expressed gratitude for the late Kato\u2019s kindness during his lifetime and announced that a farewell ceremony will be held at a later date.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a notice to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom\u00a0 announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":41601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-41598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a notice to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom\u00a0 announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a notice to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom\u00a0 announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-17T07:42:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-17T07:58:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20241217-41598-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"761\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"In a notice to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom\u00a0 announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"In a notice to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom\u00a0 announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2024-12-17T07:42:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-17T07:58:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1270,"height":761,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20241217-41598-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0","datePublished":"2024-12-17T07:42:08+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-17T07:58:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/"},"wordCount":121,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20241217-41598-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/","name":"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20241217-41598-header.jpg","datePublished":"2024-12-17T07:42:08+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-17T07:58:14+00:00","description":"In a notice to shareholders published on December 17, Nihon Falcom\u00a0 announced that its founder, chairman and former president Masayuki Kato died on December 15, 2024.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20241217-41598-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20241217-41598-header.jpg","width":1270,"height":761,"caption":"Nihon Falcom"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nihon-falcom-founder-masayuki-kato-dies-at-78\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato dies at 78\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41598"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41608,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598\/revisions\/41608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}