Which Japanese video game designer conceived the Pokémon franchise?

Satoshi Tajiri conceived the Pokémon franchise. He became fascinated by the Game Boy’s ability to connect two systems and imagined creatures moving between them, inspired partly by his childhood interest in collecting insects.

Tajiri had already founded Game Freak with illustrator Ken Sugimori before pitching the Pokémon concept to Nintendo. The project eventually became Pokémon Red and Green, with Tajiri serving as director, game designer, and map designer.

A common mix-up is confusing the franchise’s creator with its other major contributors. Ken Sugimori was central to the artwork and character designs, while Shigeru Miyamoto mentored the project at Nintendo and Junichi Masuda composed music and later held important development roles.