Tatsuo Nomura facts for kids

Tatsuo Nomura (野村 達雄, Nomura Tatsuo, born 1986) is a talented software developer from Japan. He was born in China, but his family moved to Japan when he was young. He studied computer science and later worked at Google, helping to create Google Maps. He is most famous for leading the team that made the super popular game, Pokémon Go.

Early Life and Learning

Tatsuo Nomura was born in 1986. His birth name was Shi Lei. He grew up in a small village in Heilongjiang, a region in Northeast China. His grandmother on his father's side was Japanese. She stayed in China after World War II and married a Chinese man.

When Nomura was nine years old, his family moved to Japan. They settled in Nagano Prefecture. He changed his name to Tatsuo Nomura. At first, he found it hard to speak Japanese.

His Education Journey

Nomura studied computer engineering at Shinshu University. He finished his studies there in 2009. He then continued his learning at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He worked with a famous professor named Satoshi Matsuoka. Nomura wrote an important paper about supercomputing. This paper was well-received by researchers in America. He earned his master's degree in 2011.

His Career in Tech

After getting his master's degree, Nomura joined Google's office in Japan in 2011. He worked as an engineer. He helped develop Google Maps and other projects. In 2013, he moved to Google's office in America.

Nomura helped create some fun April Fools' Day jokes for Google Maps. For example, in 2012, they made an "8-bit Google Maps". In 2013, they created a treasure hunt game.

How Pokémon Go Began

In 2014, Nomura had a cool idea for a Google Maps April Fools' Day prank. He wanted users to be able to find Pokémon on their phones using Google Maps. He got permission from The Pokémon Company (TPC). This company shared an office building with Google's Japan office. The prank was released in 2014 and was a big hit.

Nomura's involvement caught the eye of John Hanke. Hanke used to lead the Google Maps division. He asked Nomura to talk to The Pokémon Company again. Hanke wanted to suggest making a real augmented reality Pokémon game. After many talks, Nomura accepted an offer from Niantic Labs in 2015. He became the leader for developing the game. This game would later be called Pokémon Go. The president of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, said Nomura was chosen because he was so diverse and understood different cultures.

At Niantic, Nomura works as a Senior Product Manager. He started as an engineer for Pokémon Go. But as the game's team grew, he moved into a product manager role. He also directed the mobile game Pikmin Bloom, which came out in 2021. More recently, he directed the mobile game Monster Hunter Now, released in 2023.