Police in Kyoto, Japan have arrested Nintendo employee Jin Nakanose for assaulting a man in a shopping center. The assault took place May 23rd, 2010 at Loc Town in Kumiyama Town, Kyoto.
When asked why the incident took place, Nakanose responded that he was patiently waiting to enter the shopping center parking lot when the victim cut him off. This enraged Nakanose causing him to pull the victim from his vehicle and repeatedly punching him in the face and body. The victim is alive and is estimated to need two weeks to recover from the injuries received from the attack.
While this may appear to have absolutely nothing to do with Nintendo or the video game industry as a whole, you can bet that this story will be blown out of proportion by Western media eager for another instance to link videogames to violence. (I’m looking at you Fox News) Not to forgive the violent acts of Nakanose, but hopefully this incident on behalf of the employee will not impact Nintendo too heavily. I would hate to see another developer suffer character assassination at the hands of the radical media, or see titles like Metroid Other M receive further delays.
