THQ Nordic has announced the formation of THQ Nordic Japan. The newly formed entity will handle distribution, public relations, and marketing of THQ Nordic and HandyGames titles for the Japanese market.
The Japanese entity, led by managing director Yuji Kato, is THQ Nordic’s second international distribution outlet, apart from its 2012-established, United States-based distribution outlet.
“In our opinion, the only real way to truly embrace (pun intended) the Japanese market is to run it with a team of Japanese professionals, which was our approach for the new Japanese subsidiary,” said THQ Nordic managing director Klemens Kreuzer in a press release. “A warm, heartfelt welcome to the entire team based in Tokyo, Japan. Good things come to those who wait and we took our time to realize it with the best setup possible.”
THQ Nordic Japan managing director Yuji Kato added, “At this point, I would like to quote Persona 3: ‘Two in Harmony Surpasses One in Perfection.’ Our team is prepared, honored and absolutely ready to kickstart THQ Nordic’s operations on the Japanese market. We are honored that we were given this opportunity and can not wait to bring THQ Nordic content to our Japanese audience.”
The THQ Nordic Japan team consists of key people that “delivered more than 200 titles in 15 years to the Japanese market,” including:
- Yuji Kato – Managing Director
- Nearly 20 years of game industry experience
- Former programmer
- Junko Kato – Manager
- Former editor
- Former programmer, mainly QA and project management
- Hiroshi Ogawa – Project Management
- Former programmer
- Networking and exhibitions management