Shigeru Miyamoto Awarded “Honorary Citizen of Nantan City, Kyoto” By Hometown

Shigeru Miyamoto, ‚Creative Fellow‘ at Nintendo and creator of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, the Legend of Zelda franchise, Pikmin, and often touted as the greatest video game creator ever, has been getting honors left and right this year. In October, Miyamoto was awarded the “Person of Cultural Merit” Award, the highest honor a person in a creative field can receive in Japan, and on December 20, he was elected as an “Honorary Citizen of Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture.”

Nantan City in Kyoto Prefecture is a newly merged township of multiple cities in the general area, which included Miyamoto’s hometown of Sonobe. Nantan City, in September 2019, passed an ordinance to honor people of significance who were born in the city via a vote from local assemblymen officials. This would be the first time Nantan City has honored people from its hometown in this way.

The first proposal for “Honorary Citizen of Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture” was passed on December 20, granting the honor to the video game designer as well as former Ambassador to Ukraine, Mutsuo Mabuchi, former cabinet secretary – once touted as the “shadow Prime Minister to Japan” – the late Hiromu Nonaka, who presided over the role during the 1995 Sarin Gas Attack, and the 7th Chief Justice of Japan, the late Ekizo Fujibayashi. A ceremony granting the honor hasn’t occurred as of writing.

Sources: Kyoto Shimbun

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.