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[[Image:Satoshi tajiri.jpg|right|frame|Satoshi Tajiri]]
'''Satoshi Tajiri''' (Japanese: '''田尻 智''', born August 28, 1965) is the creator of Pocket Monsters, which became known in English-speaking countries as [[Pokémon]].

As a child, Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, lived in [[WP:Machida, Tokyo|Machida]], a suburb of Tokyo, and loved to collect insects, hunting them in ponds, fields and forests, constantly looking for new insects and coming up with new ways to attract insects like beetles. He was so attracted to insects, in fact, that his peers used to call him "Dr. Bug".

Tajiri did not like school. His father wanted him to be an electrical utility repairman, but this is not what he wanted. In the late 1970s, the fields and ponds that Tajiri loved as a child were paved over by apartments and parking lots, and his idea for Pokémon grew, as he wanted to give modern children the chance to hunt for creatures as he did. Tajiri got into games when he was at technical school, spending all his time in arcades. He was such a big fan that one local arcade gave him a [[WP:Space Invaders|''Space Invaders'']] machine to take home.

In 1982, Tajiri and his friends formed a games magazine under the name of Game Freak. One of his Game Freak friends was [[Ken Sugimori]], who drew all of the Pokémon's images. In 1991, Tajiri discovered the [[Game Boy]]. When he first saw Link Cables, he imagined insects creeping along them, and the Pokémon idea was born. The game was given some initial funding and concept work from another game design studio, "[[Creatures, Inc.|Creatures]]." Satoshi named his development company "[[Game Freak]]", after the magazine, and thus it can still be seen at the start of Pokémon games.

Tajiri went to work for [[Nintendo]] and spent the next six years working on Pokémon. He made friends with [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], the man behind [[WP:Mario|Mario]], [[WP:The Legend of Zelda series|''The Legend of Zelda'']], [[WP:Pikmin|''Pikmin'']], and [[WP:Donkey Kong|Donkey Kong]]. As a tribute to Miyamoto and Tajiri, [[Ash Ketchum]] is named Satoshi and [[Gary Oak]] is named Shigeru in the Japanese version of Pokémon. Likewise, in the Japanese versions of the original [[Generation I]] games and their [[Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen|Generation III remakes]], Satoshi and Shigeru are default choices for the names of the {{ga|Red|player}} and {{ga|Blue|rival}}, just as Ash and Gary are in the English-language versions.

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[[Category:People|Tajiri, Satoshi]]
[[Category:Game cast and crew|Tajiri, Satoshi]]
[[Category:Anime cast and crew|Tajiri, Satoshi]]

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