Miyamoto Becomes First Video Game Designer to Receive Japan's Order of Culture

Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced on October 23, 2026, that Shigeru Miyamoto, a Representative Director Fellow at Nintendo, will receive the Order of Culture (文化勲章), one of Japan's highest state honors. Nikkei and Jiji Press reported that Miyamoto, 73, is listed under the newly recognized field of "Media Arts (Gaming)," marking the first time the award has gone to someone from the video game industry.

Miyamoto is credited as the lead creator behind Nintendo's Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Pikmin franchises. He joined Nintendo in 1977 and has worked in game development for roughly five decades, according to Jiji Press.

Who else was honored

Miyamoto is one of eight people named to receive the Order of Culture for the 2026 fiscal year. According to Jiji Press, the other recipients include architect Toyo Ito, lighting designer Motoko Ishii, composer Shunichi Tokura, and researchers in chemistry, biological sciences, French literature and immunology. Separately, 21 individuals were named Persons of Cultural Merit (文化功労者) this year, including jazz saxophonist Sadao Watanabe and animator Rintaro, per Jiji Press and Yahoo! News Japan.

Miyamoto himself was first recognized by the Japanese government in 2019, when he was named a Person of Cultural Merit, according to Inven Global. Recipients of the Order of Culture are typically chosen from among past Persons of Cultural Merit, Inven Global noted.

What Miyamoto said

At a press conference reported by Famitsu, Miyamoto discussed his approach to game design, distinguishing between creative vision and technical execution. He said that as artificial intelligence takes on more of the execution work, it pushes designers to clarify what genuine creative intent actually means.

He also described a well-known design choice in the original Super Mario Bros. — letting players jump over Bowser at the end of a course instead of staging a final battle with him — as a solution that emerged from the technical difficulty of building an extended scrolling action game, rather than a deliberate creative statement, according to Famitsu.

Addressing the honor directly, Miyamoto was quoted by Jiji Press as saying it was "truly an honor" (本当に光栄) after roughly 50 years of making games.

The ceremony and the honor

The Order of Culture investiture ceremony is traditionally held at the Imperial Palace on November 3, Culture Day, with a separate commendation ceremony for Persons of Cultural Merit held the following day at a Tokyo hotel, according to Famitsu. The Order of Culture has previously gone to figures in literature, science, the arts and, in some years, Nobel laureates; this year's chemistry Nobel laureate is also among the eight Order of Culture recipients, per Yahoo! News Japan's report.

Nikkei's report noted that the category "Media Arts (Games)" itself is a first-time addition within the Order of Culture's recognized fields, underscoring that the change extends beyond a single individual to an institutional acknowledgment of video games as a cultural medium.