Hideo Kojima collects prestigious Japanese cultural award

Hideo Kojima has today collected an award for fine arts from the Japanese government’s Agency of Cultural Affairs.

Since 1950, the agency has given out the prestigious awards annually to a selection of individuals who have “made outstanding achievements in various fields of the arts, or whose achievements have opened up new frontiers in their respective fields”.

Kojima received his award in the media arts category, following in the footsteps of Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who was awarded the same honour in 2010.

Kojima’s most recent release, Death Stranding, was highly acclaimed by the selection committee members.

“I received the 72nd Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan,” Kojima said on Tuesday. “Thank you very much. I have been creating games for 36 years.

“I am very happy that the immature medium of games has been highly evaluated as a cultural art form of ‘expression’. I will continue to devote myself to the creation of digital entertainment. Thank you very much for your continued support.”

Kojima started his career in 1986 at Konami, where he designed Metal Gear (1987) for the MSX2, laying the foundation for the stealth genre of video games.

He went on to spend more than 30 years at Konami, producing several acclaimed Metal Gear Solid games, as well as mech title Zone of the Enders, plus adventure games Snatcher (1988) and Policenauts (1994).

Kojima founded Kojima Productions in 2005, under the control of Konami. After splitting from Konami in 2015 he reformed Kojima Productions as an independent studio, backed by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The reformed company’s first game was 2019’s Death Stranding for PS4. A PC version was released in summer 2020. The Director’s Cut hit PS5 last year and will be released for PC on March 30.

Kojima received the BAFTA Fellowship—the highest accolade bestowed by the organisation on an individual—at the BAFTA Games Awards in 2020.