Today, 29th April 2026, is Yoshiaki Koizumi 58th birthday.

Currently the Senior General Manager at Nintendo EPD, and a Senior Executive Officer at the company, Koizumi-san is a long-time legend, having been with the company for 35 years (via Stealth40k)

He’s also the face of many Nintendo Directs over the years, and he’s worked on and directed a number of huge Nintendo games, including Super Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy.

He joined Nintendo in April 1991 and cut his teeth on the manual for a little game known as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, where he came up with the idea of the three goddesses and the game’s backstory. he went one step further with Link’s Awakening, creating the bulk of the story alongside Kensuke Tanabe.

Working as assistant on Super Mario 64 and Wind Waker around the same time, his first game as lead director was Super Mario Sunshine, followed by Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a bit of an NL fave.

But perhaps most famously, Koizumi directed Super Mario Galaxy, and is responsible for sneaking in more story elements to the main game. Since then, Koizumi has largely been a producer and supervisor on many Nintendo titles, most of which fall under Mario’s banner, including Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey.

One of our favourite videos after Odyssey’s release is this Guessing Game, which Koizumi took part in alongside Breath of the Wild and Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma.

Having held various positions at the company, he was Deputy General Manager at Nintendo EPD from 2015 to 2023, when he then became Senior General Manager, under fellow Nintendo Direct host Shinya Takahashi.

So, to say Koizumi is one of the most-influential people at Nintendo is an understatement. And to think, he played his very first video game at 21 years old: Super Mario Bros. 2. You can see a comprehensive list of all of his credits at Moby Games.

Happy birthday to Yoshiaki Koizumi! Here’s to many more fruitful and happy years.