As the president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara handles brand management for all Pokémon products, including video games, the trading card game, videos, and apps. He has produced various hit works for nearly 30 years and continues to be active as a producer to this day.

Ishihara was born in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, in 1957 and graduated from the University of Tsukuba Graduate School of Art and Design in 1983. He was involved in the development of various video games as a game producer before founding Creatures Inc. in 1995. In 1996, he produced Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, which became the basis for all subsequent Pokémon related products, and in the same year, he also developed the Pokémon Trading Card Game. In 1998, Ishihara founded Pokémon Center Co., Ltd. (now The Pokémon Company) and he has served as president and CEO ever since.

In addition to these roles, Ishihara serves as the Representative Director Chairman of the POKÉMON with You Foundation, a charitable foundation established in 2021, contributing to activities such as disaster recovery support, educational assistance, and scholarship grants. Over the course of his career, he has received numerous prestigious awards including the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award at the Japan Game Awards 2011, the Soft Power Award at the Japan Innovator Awards in 2016, and the Institute of Environmental Art and Design’s 2019 Grand Prize.

The basic concept of Pokémon games is to find Pokémon in the field, catch them, and raise them. It is not merely a closed experience of self, it enables players to communicate with others through “battling” and “trading”.

The Pokémon Group, which now spans the globe, aims to create connections that can transcend language, culture, and generations with its vision of “Bringing the World Together Through Pokémon.”