‘Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years’: Pokémon’s chief’s plans for Pikachu and pals

Not content with a billion fans, The Pokemon Company's COO Takato Utsunomiya talks about his plan to catch the rest of humanity - and for the far-reaching franchise to outlive us all

When Satoshi Tajiri was a child, he developed a fascination with insects. Growing up in the greater Tokyo suburb of Machida, he'd spend summer days peeling back plants and scouring the undergrowth for creepy crawlies, carefully adding each new insect to his collection. This eyebrow-raising hobby earned him the playground nickname Mr Bug" from his teasing classmates, but Tajiri had the last laugh. After all, it was this formative obsession that inspired his crowning achievement - Pokemon.

Thirty-three years later, that first duo of ambitious Game Boy games has blossomed into the world's highest-grossing media franchise, beating behemoths such as Star Wars and Marvel. Tajiri took a step back from his cutesy creation in 2012, and his developer Game Freak is now part of a larger Pokemon Company - whose COO, Takato Utsunomiya, now sits in front of me in Yokohama.