CV

Sohei Niikawa graduated from Tokai university, where he studied history, in 1996, and his first job was at the then three-year-old Nippon Ichi Software – though had any of the game pitches he sent to other companies been accepted, he would never have joined this small tabletop-game maker based in unfashionable Gifu. Initially responsible for sales and marketing, his first design job was a mahjong game, but his career took the turn he’d long sought with Rhapsody, a musical RPG that launched in 1998. The game that has defined his career, the revered strategyRPG Disgaea, is Nippon Ichi’s most successful series, and Niikawa was duly promoted. After being named managing director, overseeing all development, in 2008, he was given the role of company president in 2009.