Former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi Funds Cancer Hospital - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 21 May 2010 / 3,339 Views
Nintendo fans, let us take a moment to reflect. All the years you've spent collecting heart containers, busting viruses, stopping life-sucking parasite epidemics, training your brain, meeting your fitness goals, raising puppies, shooting turtle shells off of rainbows, and even blowing up a few planets and galaxies here and there, have been put to good use. You've actually helped open a new cancer treatment facility in Kyoto!
Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo from 1949 to 2002 before he passed the torch to Satoru Iwata, is still Nintendo's biggest shareholder, and this has helped him become one of the richest people in the world. He even had a stint as the richest man in Japan. To keep from drowning in all our gaming dollars (and to help treat cancer), he has donated almost the entire 7.5 billion yen (about $83 million) to build a new cancer hospital in Kyoto, where Nintendo's headquarters are located. The hospital opened its doors on May 18th, and will be treating patients by the end of the month.
The hospital is eight floors and 82,000 square feet, with its own radiation oncology, internal medicine oncology, respiratory surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, and urology departments. At 101 feet, the hospital is so tall that it needed special clearance from the city of Kyoto, which normally doesn't allow such giant buildings to get in the way of their famously beautiful scenery. Luckily Kyoto made this exception, because fighting cancer is also a beautiful thing.
Source: 1UP
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Nothing can describe the generosity of this man, he made nintendo what they are today, he gave them his 14 million dollar pension, and picked the right guy for the job after steping down. Congrats Mr. Yamauchi, may your hospital flourish and successfully treat people from this wretched disease that has plagued many for ages.
Frankly anyone who is willing to give large amounts of money towards cancer research should be given their 15 seconds of fame.
Just because they already were famous or you think the news isn't 'appropriate' doesn't diminish its importance.
people need to learn how to read first, i am stunned that this keeps happening all the time, reading comprehension anyone ??, The money came from Yamauchi, not from Nintendo, the fact that he made the money out of nintendo doesnt mean that nintendo is the one with the nice gesture, it is Yamauchi the one that is giving the money out of his pocket, Nintendo doesnt have anything to do with it, so stop saying, i love nintendo and things like that, first read then try to understand what you just readed, then you can make a statement.
Wow, Yamauchi truly is a generous old man.
It's so nice to hear news like this, it's unbelievable kind.
Though I think people do him a disservice by saying well done nintendo, this is from Hiroshi Yamauchi own pocket.
sweet
@Bennamu
People like you give gamers a bad name.
OT - it's fantastic that this hospital was made :) Nice work Mr. Yamauchi
good job nintendo you made me proud of u! i forgive some of ur mistakes u have made! :) lol
@benmanu
Since when was the value of something determined by the cost of making it?
Very good way to give something back to the people, who buyed Nintendo games. I hope, this Hospital isn´t only for people, who have much money, it should be a hospital for every Japanese.
iI love nintendo.
@Wagram do you have to complain about everything?...
this Article is talking about Nintendo so it is sort of gaming related
This is what I call nice person, Iwata would never do anything like that
@Wagram: This site isn't just for gaming news. It's for news that might be of interest to gamers.
Bah, I think this is more newsworty than some of the stuff we get occasionally... like 'Game X is getting a trailer. Soon.', or 'Breaking News: Pachter said Nintendo is d00med!'. :-P
@Wagram
Just because this is a gamign site doesn't mean that every news has to be gaming related and besisde it just mention that a retired president of Nintendo is doing something good for humaity, plus it's news for gamers and he was a president of a gaming compnay thus we would be interested.
I'm sure one of the medical personal will have blue eye , brown hair , a mustache & hazardously his name will be 'Mario'
Not to rain on his parade. What he did was very generous and nice. But does this really qualify as Video Game news?
i love nintendo.
@ Rubang, Ah thanks, I knew he was in his 80's, but not his exact age. Wait what- he owns a poetry museum? Oh man. :-D
@Cheebee, he's 82 now. He's getting older, richer, and more generous every year. He made a $60 million donation to a different hospital a few years ago, and I forget how much he paid to open his poetry museum.
lulz @morenoingrato. Classic text-formatting zing!
@Ninten78, he turns 83 in November!
Nintendo cares so much,Mr.Yamauchi is a kind man,he is 83 btw.
lol :-D
I was very worried when I saw this because I only read
"Former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi Funds Cancer"
That's really nice of him. :-) How old is he now, anyway? I wonder what he intends to do with all his money, when he eventually passes away... I'm thinking quite a significant lot of it will go straight to Nintendo. :-)
But again, very good to see him put his fortune to such splendid use!
This is why i love Nintendo. Cancer is a horrible terrible disease and it's great that Nintendo are helping to combat this.
Very good of him to do, awesome.
He's well into his 80's too, good man!
Wow. Respect has gone up by over 9000 points!
