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Nintendo brightens the life of a Game Boy-loving 95-year-old Japanese grandmother

Oona McGee Feb 25, 2020
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Another heartwarming tale of Nintendo’s legendary God-like customer service.

Japanese customer service is often hailed as the best in the world, and one local company that’s become particularly renowned for its “God-like” treatment of customers is gaming giant Nintendo.

Over the years, they’ve lovingly replaced parts on a gamer’s beloved 3DS for a pittance, helped kids overcome bullying, and even replied to a blind boy’s letter in braille.

Now another heartwarming tale of customer kindness from Nintendo has emerged, and this time it involves a 95-year-old grandmother.

Kuniko Tsusaka, the 70-year-old daughter of the grandmother, recounted her mother’s story in a letter to the Asahi Shimbun, one of the country’s leading national newspapers, and it was published in the morning edition on 21 February.

Twitter user @SITM_K tweeted an image of the story as it appeared in the Asahi Shimbun and it quickly went viral, receiving over 195,000 likes and 66,000 retweets as of this writing.

95歳でゲームボーイを楽しむおばあちゃんと任天堂の「神対応」ならぬ「紙対応」に朝からほっこり。 pic.twitter.com/IAnVU3WwrS

— サイタマ@電脳せどりワーケーション📚 (@SITM_K) February 20, 2020

The letter begins with Tsusaka recalling how much her mother loved playing Tetris on her original-model Game Boy, with it always by her side. However, her mother fell ill when she was 95, and her Game Boy, the third original one she’d owned, stopped working at the same time.

They visited many stores to find a new one, but it wasn’t being sold anywhere, and they were told it couldn’t be fixed.

Tsusaka’s son then sang the praises of Nintendo’s “divine customer service” (“kami taiou” in Japanese) to his grandmother. However, due to the double meaning of “kami” in “kami taiou”, which can mean both “divine” (神) and “paper” (紙), the grandmother mistook her grandson’s recommendation as “paper customer service”, so she put all her effort into penning a letter on paper to the company.

After sending the letter to Nintendo, along with the broken Game Boy, her grandmother received a reply from the company within a week.

The reply came with a brand new Game Boy and a letter wishing the grandmother a long life.

In the letter, they explained that they weren’t able to repair the old Game Boy as they didn’t have the parts for it, but they had one new one in their warehouse so they sent it to her.

Needless to say, she was overjoyed, and Tsusaka sent a photo of her happy mother to Nintendo to thank them.

Tsusaka now recalls the misunderstanding between “divine” customer service and “paper” customer service fondly, and the letter ends on a heartfelt note, as she says that her mother was able to retain all her cognitive awareness until she passed away at the age of 99.

Tsusaka believes her mother, who was such a happy person, is still thankful for Nintendo’s “divine” customer service up in heaven above.

The story touched thousands of people online, who left comments like:

“Omg I’d heard about the God-like nature of Nintendo’s customer service but this is truly amazing!”
“I can’t believe they sent her a new one!”
“I’m speechless. Nothing but praise for a company that sends its last new Game Boy to a customer from their warehouse.”
“I am crying. What a heartwarming story.”
“I’ve always loved Nintendo but now I love them on a whole other level!”

With this particular act of kindness taking place a number of years ago, who knows how many other divine customer service stories from Nintendo have gone untold?

One thing we do know for certain is that Nintendo has etched a place in the hearts of many for their commitment to their customers. Even those who are impatiently waiting for the March release of Animal Crossing on the Switch.

Source: Twitter/@SITM_K via Hachima Kikou
Top image: Flickr/Ken Yamaguchi
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