Dr. Kawashima declines $22 million in Brain Age royalties
Category: Nintendo DS, Posted: 02/02/2008 at 04:19PM CST by Brendon Lindsey, Editor-in-Chief
If you've ever played Brain Age, you've been well acquainted with Dr. Ryuta Kawashima's blocky, stoic face. What you may not know, however, is how much money the man has turned down as a result of the game's success.
With 17 million copies of Brain Age sold worldwide since its release, Dr. Kawashima is due to earn $22 million (2.4 billion yen) in royalties. Surprisingly, he's refused to accept a single penny for himself.
"Not a single yen has gone in my pocket," said the soft-spoken 48-year-old doctor with round-rim glasses. "Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it."
According to the rules of Tohoku University, which employs Kawashima, he could accept half of the royalties as long as the remaining half is given to the school. The man is wholly dedicated to his research and work, though, and has never even entertained the notion of accepting the royalties for his 'hard work'. "To hear this may put you off -- but my hobby is work," he told AFP.
While he hasn't accepted a penny in royalties, Kawashima has used (so far) a small portion of the money from them to develop further research and fund other projects. He has built a 300-million-yen laboratory at the university's Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer where he works, and another lab is due to be completed next month at the cost of 400 million yen.
Despite his selflessness, Kawashima understands that for some people, money is an important issue. According to him, other researchers have the right to earn money from their work if that is what motivates them. For him, though, his research and yearly salary of roughly $100,000 are more than enough.
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humbleeee
This is far more than humble, this is very noble in my book. If the concept of karma is true, this guy just gained a crapton of brownie points.
He'd be more humble if he took the royalties and donated them to worthy causes.
Wasabi, i agree.
Wasabi, he's using the money to build and fund research labs. That's pretty damn worthy.
"He'd be more humble if he took the royalties and donated them to worthy causes"
Hes spending portions of that money for cancer research and research in general. I dont think charities work off that well in the first place. Africa probably has over a billion dollars a year worth of charities and they are still in poverty and nothing has seemed to change. By funding research structures hes for sure making a bigger difference.
100,000K a year is alot of money, especialy in yen
Oh, I guess I didn't read it properly. I assumed he'd turned down the money completely. I would've thought he'd have to accept the money and then give it away.