is a Japanese software developer. Born in China with partial Japanese descent, he moved to Japan as a child and studied

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

. He worked in the

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

development team before moving to

Niantic Labs Niantic, Inc. ( ) is an American software development company based in San Francisco. Niantic is best known for developing the augmented reality mobile games ''Ingress (video game), Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go''. The company was formed as Niant ...

, where he directed the

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

mobile game ''

Pokémon Go ''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game originally developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devic ...

''.

Early life and education

Nomura was born in 1986 and grew up as Shi Lei () in a poor village in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

Northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

. His paternal grandmother was a Japanese who remained in China after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and married a Chinese man. At the age of nine, his family moved to Japan and he settled in

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

, changing his name to Tatsuo Nomura. He initially could not converse in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. He studied

computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...

Shinshu University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Matsumoto, Nagano, Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As the only national university in Japan bearing the name of a former Provinces of Japan, Japanese province, it bears the nam ...

and graduated in 2009. He continued his studies at the

Tokyo Institute of Technology The Tokyo Institute of Technology () was a public university in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan. It merged with Tokyo Medical and Dental University to form the Institute of Science Tokyo on 1 October 2024. The Tokyo Institute of Technology was a De ...

under the supervision of

Satoshi Matsuoka is a Japanese computer scientist and the current head of the Riken Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) at RIKEN, the largest Supercomputing center in Japan. Biography Matsuoka graduated from Musashi Senior High School in 1982 and the Un ...

. He wrote a paper on supercomputing which was well-received by American researchers, and he earned his master's degree in 2011.

Career

After obtaining his master's, Nomura joined

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

's Japan office in 2011 as an engineering staff, and became involved in the development of

among other projects. He was transferred to the American office in 2013. According to Nomura, he was involved in creating multiple April Fools' Day jokes for

, including " 8-bit Google Maps" (2012) and a treasure hunt (2013).

Idea of ''Pokémon Go''

In 2014, Nomura devised an idea to create a Google Maps April Fools' Day prank which would allow users to hunt

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

on their mobile devices. After securing a permission from

The Pokémon Company , simply known as Pokémon is a Japanese company responsible for brand management, production, publishing, marketing, and licensing of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, which consists of video games, a trading card game, anime television series, f ...

(TPC), which shared an office complex with Google's Japan office, the prank was released in 2014. Nomura's involvement drew the attention of

John Hanke John Hanke (born 1967) is an American technology executive. Hanke led Google's Geo product division, which includes Google Earth, Google Maps, StreetView, SketchUp, and Panoramio. He is founder and CEO of Niantic, Inc., a software company spun ...

, a former leader of the Google Maps division, who requested Nomura contact TPC once more to propose an augmented reality Pokémon game. After the negotiations completed, Nomura accepted an offer from

in 2015 to lead the development of the game which was to be called ''

''. According to TPC president

Tsunekazu Ishihara is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and businessman who is the president and Chief executive officer of The Pokémon Company. Prior to working with the ''Pokémon'' franchise, Ishihara was part of Ape Inc. and worked on tit ...

, Nomura was selected as lead due to "his diversity beyond nationality and borders". At Niantic, Nomura works as a Senior Product Manager. He was initially an engineer for the game, but as the game's team expanded, he transitioned to product manager. He was also the director for the 2021 mobile game '' Pikmin Bloom'' and the director for the 2023 mobile game ''

Monster Hunter Now ''Monster Hunter Now'' is a 2023 augmented reality mobile game in the ''Monster Hunter'' series, developed by Niantic and Capcom and published by the former. It was released worldwide on September 14, 2023 and has accumulated 15 million download ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nomura, Tatsuo 1986 births Living people Engineers from Heilongjiang People from Nagano Prefecture Google employees Shinshu University alumni Tokyo Institute of Technology alumni Chinese emigrants to Japan Japanese video game programmers Pokémon Nintendo people Chinese people of Japanese descent