A friend who works at a fairly large toy manufacturer in Japan says there is a serious problem at the top with management across the various entertainment companies. The aging population leaves large number of of older execs at the top with less and less new talent and ideas coming in. Decisions that once could be made by a single person to take a chance on a talented junior now have to go through and be approved by multiple people so theres less risk taking on new ideas instead of just going with what worked in the past. Many of the global household names, including Mario, were risks on a younger employee.

Nintendo seems to be thriving despite this but it might just be the larger than life people like Miyamoto that are preventing this