Shigeru Miyamoto, the game producer behind Super Mario Bros., and Kenso Soai, who shared this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry, are among eight people named to the Order of Culture for the current fiscal year, NHK reported.
The Order of Culture is Japan's highest honor in the arts and sciences, awarded by the Emperor at a ceremony on Culture Day, Nov 3. This year's recipients span video games, chemistry, Kabuki, music and medicine.
From Nintendo to the Nobel
Miyamoto, 73, joined Nintendo in 1977 and designed Donkey Kong in 1981 before creating Super Mario Bros. in 1985. He later led development of The Legend of Zelda and the Wii console. He is the first person from the video game industry to receive the order.
Soai, 71, was named a co-winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry earlier this month for work on asymmetric autocatalysis — a reaction that amplifies its own handedness, a step toward explaining how life came to favor one molecular form over its mirror image.
The other recipients
The remaining six honorees include Kabuki actor Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII, composer Yoko Kanno, and immunologist Tasuku Honjo, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on cancer immunotherapy.
The list also names historian Takeshi Matsuda, painter Setsuko Migishi and engineer Hiroshi Amano, a 2014 Nobel laureate in physics for the blue light-emitting diode. NHK did not give the full roster of eight in its initial report, and the agency's account of the remaining names was not complete.
Culture Day, Nov 3, is a national holiday marking the 1946 promulgation of Japan's postwar constitution. The Order of Culture has been awarded annually since 1937, and recipients receive a medal and a lifetime annuity.
Miyamoto's selection drew attention because the order has historically gone to novelists, scientists and traditional artists rather than to people working in interactive entertainment, an industry Japan helped build. Nintendo said in a statement that Miyamoto was "deeply honored" and credited the teams he has worked with over nearly five decades.
“I have simply been trying to make something fun, and I am grateful to everyone who played along the way.”Shigeru Miyamoto, game producer, Nintendo
Soai told NHK he was surprised by the honor and said he hoped it would encourage young researchers in a field that often goes unrecognized. The Nobel committee cited his work on chirality — the property that makes some molecules exist in left- and right-handed forms — as opening a path to understanding a fundamental question about the origin of life.
The government is expected to formally announce the full list later, and the presentation ceremony will be held at the Imperial Palace on Nov 3.