User:Emma Southworth/sandbox

Aki Maita is the Japanese Inventor of the popular toy called the Tamagotchi [1][2][3][4][5]. She was born in 1967 in Japan. By the time she was 30, she was married and working in a low level clerical office job for the company Bandai [1][2][3]. In 1996, while she was at home, she saw an advertisement on TV [1]. It was about a boy who wanted to take his pet turtle with him, but his mother made him leave it at home [1]. This very ad sparked the idea of a portable pet [1]. She wanted to create a portable toy that wouldn’t take up lots of space [1]. She also wanted to tap into the market of teenage girls, so she needed to make it cute [1][2]. So, she came up with the idea of a virtual pet that you would have to feed and care for during the day, and it would sleep at night [1]. Together with toy designer Akihiro Yokoi, she was able to bring her idea to life [1][2][4]. It was named “Tamagotchi” and has gone on to sell over 80 million units since its release on November 23, 1996, earning more than $900 million dollars [1][2][4]. But Maita wasn’t given much credit for her genius invention, and when she told her husband about her accomplishments, Maita told TIME in an interview that he only said “Gambatte” which translates to “keep it up” [1]. After that, he said that he didn’t want to discuss it at home any more [1]. To add salt to the wound, she didn’t even get a raise, promotion, or even a bonus [1][2]. The only credit that Aki Maita earned was in receiving an Ig Nobel Prize for Economics along with Akihiro Yokoi [1][2]