Michael Kogan

Michael "Misha" Kogan was a Ukrainian entrepreneur who founded the Japanese video game company Taito in 1953. He was born in Odesa on January 1, 1920 to a prosperous Jewish family. His family moved to Harbin, Manchuria to escape the Russian Revolution, where he met Colonel Norihiro Yasue, a member of the Japanese Army's intelligence services and one of the architects of the Fugu Plan, a plan to settle European Jewish refugees in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. He moved to Tokyo in 1939, where he studied at Waseda School of Economics. He moved to Tianjin in 1944 before returning to Japan in 1950, settling in Setagaya, Tokyo. Kogan founded his first business in 1944 in Shanghai, called Taitung, which dealt with natural hair wigs, floor coverings, and hog bristles. He closed Taitung in 1950 after the Communist takeover of China and started his second business in Japan shortly after, a company on clothing distribution, named Taito Yoko. The company struggled financially due to the loss of products and negligent employees, and it was eventually abolished. Kogan established the Taito Trading Company on August 24, 1953, and it eventually became Taito Corporation. The company started out importing and distributing vending machines and then jukeboxes before evolving to manufacture their own. Taito became one of the pioneers of the arcade video game industry, producing hits such as Space Invaders, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, and many others. Kogan died during a business trip in Los Angeles on February 5, 1984. After his passing, his son, Abraham "Abba" Kogan, became Taito's chairman and Akio Nakanishi became its president. Kogan was survived by his wife, Asya, and his two children, Abraham and Rita. Kogan was a visionary and a leader who left a lasting legacy in the entertainment industry.