Major video game director Hidetaka Miyazaki and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were selected on Thursday among Time magazine's list of "100 Most Influential People of 2023," which annually categorizes people judged to have had the most impact that year.
Miyazaki directed the award-winning 2022 fantasy roleplaying game "Elden Ring," which was written in collaboration with U.S. author George R. R. Martin.
"Miyazaki's games make the player feel accomplished and smart," Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the "Last of Us" video game and subsequent television series, wrote in the magazine. "He refuses to overexplain the mechanics or the lore, but rather puts his trust in the player to figure it out on their own."
The blurb on Kishida was written by Time correspondent Charlie Campbell, who highlighted the Japanese leader's efforts to improve relations with South Korea and boost the country's defense spending amid rising tensions in the region, saying "Kishida has set about revolutionizing Japanese foreign policy."
Kishida will "uphold the international order based on the rule of law and will endeavor to defend world peace and prosperity," as the head of the Group of Seven summit next month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference on Friday.
Other prominent names featured on the unranked list include Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk, Britain's King Charles III and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
