A First in Nearly 90 Years: Shigeru Miyamoto Becomes the First Game Designer to Receive Japan’s Order of Culture

Video games just took their seat at Japan’s highest cultural table. The Japanese government has announced the 2026 recipients of the Order of Culture, and Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the eight — the first person from the video game industry ever selected for the honor in its nearly 90-year history.

Miyamoto wasn’t slipped in under a general arts category, either. He was chosen under a field that has never appeared on the list before: Media Arts (Gaming). The medium that Japan once treated as a commercial export is now, officially, part of its culture.

What the Order of Culture is

Established in 1937, the Order of Culture is Japan’s highest honor for cultural achievement, recognizing people who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Japanese culture across the arts, literature, and sciences. Recipients are chosen from among the country’s Persons of Cultural Merit — a list Miyamoto joined in 2019 — and the medal is presented in person by the Emperor.

The company on that honor roll tells you the level we’re talking about: filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, fashion designer Issey Miyake, and Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube are among the past recipients. Miyamoto now stands in that line as gaming’s first.

“I accept this honor on their behalf”

Speaking to the press at Nintendo’s Kyoto headquarters ahead of the official announcement, the 73-year-old Miyamoto was characteristically quick to share the credit: “I am truly honored to receive such a prestigious award. As I have often said, these achievements were not the work of one person, but the result of collaboration with many others. I accept this honor on their behalf.”

He also pointed to how far the work has traveled beyond consoles in recent years — through Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios and films like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — and reflected that when he first got involved with games 50 years ago, the medium’s form was still undefined, and he has simply been fortunate to keep working in it ever since.

Fifty years of defining the medium

Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977 as an industrial design graduate, and nearly five decades later he remains at the company as its Representative Director and Executive Fellow. Mario first appeared in 1981’s Donkey Kong, and from there Miyamoto helped build the franchises that defined Nintendo and modern game design: Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, and Pikmin.

The recognition also continues a run of firsts for Japanese game creators. Last year, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii became the first game designer to receive the Order of the Rising Sun — a separate national honor. Miyamoto’s Order of Culture sits a tier above it, and it goes to a game creator for the very first time.

The ceremony

Miyamoto will receive the medal from Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on November 3, 2026 — Culture Day, the national holiday on which the Order is traditionally conferred. He’ll be honored alongside this year’s other seven recipients: architect Toyo Ito, lighting designer Motoko Ishii, French literature scholar Tetsuya Shiokawa, chemist Kenso Soai, biologist Tsuneyoshi Kuroiwa, immunologist Shigekazu Nagata, and composer Shunichi Tokura.

Half a century after he started, the man who put Mario in the living room is being honored by his country as one of its defining cultural figures. If anyone was going to be gaming’s first, it was always going to be him.

Who do you think should be next? Let us know in the comments.

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Sources: IGN, reporting on the Japanese government’s 2026 Order of Culture announcement via Jiji Press and the Yomiuri Shimbun; Inven Global; GamesIndustry.biz coverage via Game Developer