At this month’s celebration of the Atari’s 50th anniversary, RePlay ran into former Atari and Namco exec Kevin Hayes and his wife Anne. Kevin wanted to share that he and others visited the grave of Masaya Nakamura, founder of Namco, back in October of 2019.
The grave is at a temple in suburban Tokyo. Wrote Kevin: “Anne and I, and Mike Nevin (also formerly of Atari and Namco) were in Japan for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Photos were taken at the tail end of Typhoon Hagibis, one of the biggest hurricanes to ever hit Japan, hence the umbrellas and rain gear.”
Pictured from left to right, Emiko Horiguchi, long-time personal assistant to Nakamura-san, his special advisor Shunji Iki, Kevin Hayes and Mike Nevin. On the right-hand side, there is a Pac-Man graphic that says in English: “Masaya Nakamura, Father of Pac-Man.”