{"id":63951,"date":"2026-03-25T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=63951"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:57:32","slug":"megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/","title":{"rendered":"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Aya Nishitani, who wrote the Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei series of novels that served as the basis for the prolific Shin Megami Tensei video game franchise, revealed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ayanakajima3\/status\/2033348876179329189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thread on X<\/a> where he found the inspiration for one of the franchise\u2019s key concepts \u2013 namely, that of summoning demons via a computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Nishitani, while working in logistics at electronics giant Toshiba in 1979, he experienced the introduction of one of Japan\u2019s first online networks, which was used to distribute shipping instructions that had previously been conducted via phone calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While discussing the future of the new logistics system over the phone, Nishitani\u2019s colleague spoke of the potential for computer networks to be used to transmit not only instructions, but tangible goods as well. Nishitani replied, \u201cThat\u2019s the stuff of science fiction. I don\u2019t think physical objects will ever be sent online in our lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">5\/5 I said, \u201cBut maybe we\u2019ll be able to send curses.\u201d He said, \u201cHaha, that\u2019s interesting. Just don\u2019t send one to me.\u201d That was the beginning of the idea to summon a devil as an AI onto a PC. In other words, the initial concept was to send something terrifying online, and the idea\u2026<\/p>&mdash; Aya Nishitani \u897f\u8c37\u53f2 (@ayanakajima3) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ayanakajima3\/status\/2033349475075531154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite his skepticism, the conversation prompted Nishitani to consider the idea of sending curses over a computer network. While it took him a while longer to form the concept of summoning demons with a computer, the seed of \u201csend[ing] something terrifying online\u201d had been planted in his mind. In fact, Nishitani may have inadvertently predicted the \u201cunlucky email\u201d trend of ominous chain mails that swept the Japanese internet in the 1990s and 2000s, although that itself was an evolution of a similar trend conducted via snail mail dating back to the early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ayanakajima3\/status\/2033497987817877535\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">follow-up thread<\/a>, Nishitani provided a translated excerpt from the first Digital Devil Story novel to illustrate how the theme of \u201ctransport theory\u201d \u00a0is crucial to the story. In the highlighted passage, the novel\u2019s protagonist Akemi Nakajima uses a computer at his high school to summon the demon Loki to a remote location. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"804\" height=\"396\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639510001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63955\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639510001.jpg 804w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639510001-380x187.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639510001-768x378.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The narration elaborates that for devils like Loki, \u201cthe ability to transport freely across the earth had been a long-cherished dream.\u201d It is established that devils can only appear on Earth in specific locations, and can only maintain their physical form in a limited radius from their point of origin. Nakajima seeks to \u201ccompletely overturn\u201d these preconceived notions by sending his demon summoning program over the network and remotely summoning Loki with it. At the end of the passage, it is revealed that despite masterminding this experiment, Nakajima has no way of knowing what exactly is coming through at the summoning point\u2019s destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While no official English translation for Nishitani\u2019s novel series has been published, he has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ayanakajima3\/status\/2011673402449522774\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stated<\/a> that he is currently discussing a possible release with an English-language publisher with the intention of making it available later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/drawing-inspiration-from-great-games-is-whats-holding-developers-back-megami-tensei-original-writer-on-why-taking-inspiration-from-other-media-is-crucial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>\u201cDrawing inspiration from great games\u201d is what\u2019s holding developers back. Megami Tensei original writer on why taking inspiration from other media is crucial<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shin-megami-tensei-artist-kazuma-kanekos-free-to-play-ai-card-game-to-end-services-and-immediately-resurrect-as-full-price-nintendo-switch-exclusive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Shin Megami Tensei artist Kazuma Kaneko\u2019s free-to-play AI card game to end services and immediately resurrect as full-price Nintendo Switch exclusive<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent X thread, Megami Tensei original author Aya Nishitani talks about how he came up with the franchise&#8217;s &#8220;devil summoning&#8221; concept.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":63953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-63951","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>Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent X thread, Megami Tensei original author Aya Nishitani talks about how he came up with the franchise&#039;s &quot;devil summoning&quot; concept.\" \/>\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\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent X thread, Megami Tensei original author Aya Nishitani talks about how he came up with the franchise&#039;s &quot;devil summoning&quot; concept.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-24T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63951-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"580\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"364\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emmett Harris\" \/>\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=\"Emmett Harris\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"In a recent X thread, Megami Tensei original author Aya Nishitani talks about how he came up with the franchise's \"devil summoning\" concept.","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\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"In a recent X thread, Megami Tensei original author Aya Nishitani talks about how he came up with the franchise's \"devil summoning\" concept.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-03-24T16:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":580,"height":364,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63951-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Emmett Harris","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Emmett Harris","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/"},"author":{"name":"Emmett Harris","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b58b71f8ba55c6306c72c8c2b5a6181"},"headline":"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba","datePublished":"2026-03-24T16:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/"},"wordCount":515,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63951-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/","name":"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63951-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-24T16:00:00+00:00","description":"In a recent X thread, Megami Tensei original author Aya Nishitani talks about how he came up with the franchise's \"devil summoning\" concept.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63951-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63951-header.jpg","width":580,"height":364},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/megami-tensei-original-writer-says-inspiration-for-digital-devil-storynovels-came-about-during-his-time-working-at-toshiba\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Megami Tensei original writer says inspiration for Digital Devil Story novels came about during his time working at Toshiba"}]},{"@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\/9b58b71f8ba55c6306c72c8c2b5a6181","name":"Emmett Harris","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/emmmmmmettttttttttt-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/emmmmmmettttttttttt-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/emmmmmmettttttttttt-150x150.jpg","caption":"Emmett Harris"},"description":"Emmett Harris is a lifelong fan of all things Japanese. Whether it's retro or bleeding edge, his passion for video games, anime, manga and beyond drives him to share as much as he can with anyone who's willing to listen. His dream is to one day finally conquer his enormous gaming backlog.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/emmett-harris\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63951","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\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63951"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63957,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63951\/revisions\/63957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}