Hideo Kojima given a Minister of Education award in Japan

Game director Hideo Kojima has received the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in Japan.

• READ MORE: How an ex-Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist created the Sega Mega-CD’s most eccentric soundtrack

The Kojima Productions director was awarded the media arts category for the 72nd Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Fine Arts.

The award itself is “given by the Agency of Cultural Affairs every year since 1950 to individuals who have made outstanding achievements in various fields of the arts and who have opened up new frontiers,” according to a twitter post.

Hideo Kojima Receives the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. #AgencyforCulturalAffairs pic.twitter.com/DSYRs0ty2z

— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) March 10, 2022

Last year’s Death Stranding Director’s Cut is the reason for Kojima receiving the award, with the last games industry award in this category going to Nintendo‘s Shigeru Miyamoto in 2010.

A Siliconera translation adds that the committee who chose to give the award highlighted Death Stranding’s dynamic interactions that come from the protagonist connecting disjointed parts of society. The committee also praised his forward thinking work that began with 1987’s Metal Gear.

Whilst Hideo Kojima was a primary creative force behind the Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid games, he left developer Konami around 2015, later founding his own studio Kojima Productions.

Kojima also recently started his own podcast called Radioverse, where each episode will “feature a variety of guests who will have in-depth discussions on topics like games and movies, which you can’t hear anywhere else.”

Konami also announced earlier in the year that the entire Metal Gear franchise has sold close to 60million copies worldwide.

Last year Hideo Kojima said he is working on “the next level of experimentation with a radical project” in 2022, although he didn’t explain exactly what it was.

In other gaming news, Super Nintendo World’s Hollywood location is set to open some time in 2023. With the Orlando resort still a few years away.

The post Hideo Kojima given a Minister of Education award in Japan appeared first on NME.