About Tōru Iwatani
Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru; born January 25, 1955) is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known and commemorated for being the creator of the arcade game Pac-Man (1980). In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time. == Early life == Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan, on January 25, 1955. While in kindergarten, he and his family moved to the Tōhoku region of Japan after his father got a job as an engineer for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. After becoming a junior high student, Iwatani returned to Tokyo and graduated from the Tokyo Metropolitan University High School, before graduating from the Tokai University Faculty of Engineering. Iwatani was self-taught in computers without any formal training in programming or graphic design. He often filled his school textbooks with scattered manga, which he claims had a major influence on the character designs of his games. == Career == At the age of 22, Iwatani joined the Japanese video game publisher Namco in 1977. Before he had joined, Namco had acquired the rights to the Japanese division of Atari, Inc.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.