Tokinori Kaneyasu

From Sega Retro

Kaneyasu.jpg
Tokinori Kaneyasu
Date of birth: 1947-12-22[1] (age 76)
Employment history:
Divisions:
Role(s): Producer, Director, Executive Officer, General Manager

Tokinori Kaneyasu (兼安 時紀) is a former Sega producer, director, and executive. Following stints at Sigma and Data East at the beginning of his career, he joined Sega's early amusement R&D teams during the 1980s, eventually rising in rank to become a significant part of Sega AM5 and additionally president of Megasoft before its dissolution. During his time at Sega, Kaneyasu has produced both console video games and large amusement attractions found in theme parks.

Career

Born at the end of 1947, Tokinori Kaneyasu began his career in the gaming industry after graduating from university.[1] Some of his earliest work included software and hardware design work on medal games at Sigma;[3] following this, Kaneyasu undertook video game development at Data East[4] and joined Sega during the 1980s. Under what eventually became AM4 in its earliest form, he focused on larger projects like Mach Vision and Sega Super Circuit.[4][5][3]

Kaneyasu's work on early large attractions landed him a suitable role at AM5, a division split off from the aforementioned R&D4/AM4 specifically for bigger projects.[1][6][4][5] At the same time, Kaneyasu also appears to have briefly held a second position at Sega as president of Megasoft,[7] following Sega's late 1991 acquisition of Santos causing its original president (Takeshi Tozu) and a small proportion of staff to leave for the creation of a new Santos.[8]

With Megasoft's workforce largely merged into Sega research and development by the end of 1992,[9] Kaneyasu was allowed further focus on production duties for AM5, becoming its director in November of that year.[1] Eventually, his diverse range of production work under the company on both complex amusement attraction designs (The Crypt) and console video games (Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master) earnt Kaneyasu Executive Officer and General Manager positions at Sega and the newly reformed Mirai R&D by the early 2000s.[10][11] In June 2003, he retired from his remaining duties at the age of 55.[12]

Production history

Magazine articles

Main article: Tokinori Kaneyasu/Magazine articles.

Photographs

Main article: Photos of Tokinori Kaneyasu

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 File:SSM_JP_19960614_1996-09.pdf, page 144
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dreamcast Magazine, "2000-25 (2000-07-28)" (JP; 2000-07-14), page 30
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1994" (JP; 1994-09-08), page 96
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sega Saturn Magazine, "1996-09 (1996-06-14)" (JP; 1996-05-24), page 144
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sega Saturn Magazine, "1997-38 (1997-11-07)" (JP; 1997-10-24), page 130
  6. ↑ File:BeepMD JP 1994-10.pdf
  7. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E4%BC%81%E6%A5%AD%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%97/9JpGAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%E5%85%BC%E5%AE%89%E6%99%82%E7%B4%80
  8. ↑ @kin68000 on Twitter (Wayback Machine: 2021-11-13 22:48)
  9. ↑ http://sega.jp/fb/creators/vol_3/4.html (Wayback Machine: 2015-01-09 23:06)
  10. ↑ https://www.segasammy.co.jp/japanese/pdf/release/cr200106282.html (Wayback Machine: 2011-09-21 02:51)
  11. ↑ https://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/324/324012/2/ (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 20:05)
  12. ↑ https://www.ampress.co.jp/backnumber/bn2003.06.01.htm (Wayback Machine: 2003-08-20 05:25)
  13. ↑ File:Shinobi III MD credits.pdf
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