No Brain Training profits for Kawashima

By Ellie Gibson Published 31 January, 2008

He turned them down. Family unhappy.

Dr Ryuta Kawashima, known to millions as him what did the Brain Training for DS, has revealed he hasn't made a single yen off the profits.

That's not because Nintendo's being mean, though - it's all his own choice.

As reported by AFP, 17 million Brain Training games have been sold around the globe, netting royalties of JPY 2.4 billion (GBP 11 million). Under the terms of his employment contract with Tohoku University, Kawashima could take up to half the proceeds while the rest would go to his college. But the good doctor said his annual salary of JPY 11 million (GBP 50,000) is plenty enough to live on.

"Not a single yen has gone in my pocket. Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it," he revealed.

Kawashima doesn't play Brain Training himself these days, reckoning the research work he does keeps his mind in shape. As for his body - "If there is time for physical exercise, I want to use it for research." So when he wanted to lose 20kg last year, Kawashima just stopped eating so many pies.

He's not too keen on his sons spending hours playing games either. They're banned from going near the things on weekdays, and only get one hour at weekends. Kawashima once destroyed a game disc when they broke the rules.

"What is scary about games is that you can kill as many hours as you want," he said. "I don't think playing games is bad in itself but it makes children unable to do what they should do such as study and communication with the family."

Apparently Kawashima has been fascinated by brains since he was a teenager. While most of us were listening to bad music and discovering self-love, he was thinking how to put "my brain in a computer so it would be around to see the last day of humanity".

These days Kawashima is working with Toyota to design a car that will help elderly people stay alert and avoid accidents. Better hurry up: "I'm confident I'll go senile. Researchers, especially those in medical fields, are said to die of what they are studying. Since I've been studying the brain, I'll die of a brain disease." Little hope for those of us likely to die of Wii mini-games then.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Double0_Jensen #1 4 years ago

    Cheery fellow, isn't he?

    (First post, first comment...)

  • Quak #2 4 years ago

    ..which reminds me, does anyone know where this stupid trend of posting "first post" actually comes from?

  • Double0_Jensen #3 4 years ago

    Haha, dunno! I saw a few other people do it and figured it was the done thing...

    (also, it was my first ever post on EG...)
    Edited by 1 at 31/01/08 @ 16:48

  • _Price_ #4 4 years ago

    ....I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it."

    What a legend.

  • DanWhitehead #5 4 years ago

    I thought he was made up, like Hamburglar.

  • DrDamn #6 4 years ago

    "Would you like £11m?"
    "No thank you"

    And people are taking Brain Training advice off the guy?

  • AcidSnake #7 4 years ago

    Hamburglar isn't real?!

    /cries in corner

  • Cloudane #8 4 years ago

    I have a fair bit of respect for anybody who would decline £1,000,000 yet alone ELEVEN MILLION POUNDS!!

  • optimusprym8 #9 4 years ago

    I know Japanese culture is all about respect and honesty etc but c'mon, this takes it a bit far. But then I also would make my kids earn their way rather than leech off me (if I was a rich man tralalala etc) and turn into spoilt whores like Paris Hilton

  • GamesConnoisseur #10 4 years ago

    Thanks Gawd he wasnt my dad! If he was then I ll have a lot of broken Spectrum C90 tapes, Amiga floppies and so on!

    Edit: And I wont be now so depressed that dad turned down a fortune and not being able to borrow a bit, also not being able to eventually get a share when the old man pass away!
    Edited by 1 at 31/01/08 @ 17:06

  • MBar #11 4 years ago

    I can't decide if I like him more or less now.

    Crazy as a hammock full of budgerigars, but still, good on him.

  • DrDamn #12 4 years ago

    Why respect? If you don't want it then accept it and donate it to charity. Do silly frivolous stuff with it like save lives and other such nonsense. But no, obviously much better if it just fills Nintendo's already bulging purse. Lots of respect due there.
    Edited by 1 at 31/01/08 @ 17:06

  • Chim_chimma_nee! #13 4 years ago

    The world needs more people like this.
    If this is indicative of Japanese people then i'm living in the wrong country.

  • MrChuckles #14 4 years ago

    Him turning it down, does it mean it ALL goes to his uni, rather than Nintendo though?

    Otherwise yeah, stoopid man if it all goes to Nintendo, he could have given it to Charity.

  • L42yB #15 4 years ago

    The money goes to the Uni, not Nintendo...

  • Muddtallica #16 4 years ago

    Yeah, I too would like clarification on where the money actually IS going before I decide if he's been noble or daft. If it's gone to charities or to the college, great; if he's just let Nintendo keep it all, then that reeks of bizarre stubbornness. Whatever the case is, he does seem an odd chap.

  • ProtoformX #17 4 years ago

    For those of you that are saying he's daft, you must realise that not all people are driven by money. Most are, yes, and quite understandably. But there are some people that don't care about how much money they earn so long as they can support themselves and their family. I will agree with the charity comments though - he could have accepted the money and then given it to an organisation that needs it much more than Nintendo.

  • neilkachu #18 4 years ago

    Regarding the royalties: If you read the linked article you'll find he does use the money to build Research Labs for his work. So all in all a pretty nice chap.!

  • Davemanz #19 4 years ago

    He didn't give the money to Nintendo. He gave it to the university. That's a fairly noble cause, and obviously one that he cares about.

  • Freek #20 4 years ago

    He hates games and doesn't want the money, why was he involved in this??

  • monkie_king #21 4 years ago

    Brain Training was a book first, wasn't it?

    (edit: Apparently it sold over a million copies, so he must have made a fair bit of money from that. Unless he turned it all down.)
    Edited by 1 at 31/01/08 @ 21:59

  • Markusdragon #22 4 years ago

    The floating polygonical decapitated head of Dr. Kawashima still haunts my dreams, taunting me because I can't remember what I had for breakfast a week ago.

  • chronom4n #23 4 years ago

    How ironic eh?! there is this guy who is making some cracking brain development games so that you're less likely to suffer from dementia or whatever else fate has in store for you and what does he go and do when he is given the opportunity to make some money for him and/or his family, he says "NO" MAN ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND KAWASHIMA?

  • Zuiyo #24 4 years ago

    "Would you like £11m?"
    "No thank you"

    "And people are taking Brain Training advice off the guy?"

    Sharpest Eurogamer comment ever.

  • Redeye #25 4 years ago

    See, what no-one here knows is that Hollywood's knocked on his door, offered him a three-movie deal (with the good doctor portrayed by Chuck Norris), and all the merchandising rights to boot, so eleven million is chump change to him. ;)

  • convercide #26 4 years ago

    ""Would you like £11m?"
    "No thank you"

    "And people are taking Brain Training advice off the guy?"

    Sharpest Eurogamer comment ever."

    Completely agree.

  • jamie_fear #27 4 years ago

    What does he do if his kids download games from Steam for instance? No discs to break so does he rip the HDD out the PC and eat it?

  • slivir #28 4 years ago

    There's probably another reason why he's not taking the money. You'd be insane not to (especially if you make a life out of research).

  • subtlesnake #29 4 years ago

    "In the landmark lottery winners study of 1978, social psychologist, Phillip Brickman, tried to determine whether winning the lottery made people happier. Lottery winners were asked how happy they were at the moment of winning, how happy they were before winning, and how happy they expected to be in a couple of years. When Brickman compared the responses of lottery winners to those who had not won, there was no significant difference in their levels of reported happiness.

    Brickman also interviewed accident victims, who had become quadriplegic or paraplegic and found that they did not experience any significant difference in their happiness quotient after their tragedy.

    Commenting on the Brickman studies, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Gregory Berns, says in his 2005 book, Satisfaction: the Science of Finding True Fulfillment, "Lottery winners and the accident victims experienced a sudden change in fortune, yet they both adapted to their circumstances, finding themselves surprisingly close to where they had begun in terms of happiness. It was a startling discovery for it seemed to prove that happiness is relative, marked only by changes from the recent past."

    http://ww w.paralinks.net/107happinessthr...

  • SoyaKnight #30 4 years ago

    RESPECT

  • THEGREATMADMAN #31 4 years ago

    "I thought he was made up, like Hamburglar."
    Ha ha, same!