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Draft version for aki maita page Aki Maita

Aki Maita (真板亜紀) is a Japanese Bandai developer credited alongside Akihiro Yokoi with inventing the original Tamagotchi. She first envisioned the concept of a pocket-sized virtual pet toy from market research conducted as a 28 year old employee at Bandai in 1995. In the same year she collaborated with Akihiro Yokoi on the original proposal, after which her involvement continued throughout the development process. , winning the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize for economics (Akihiro Yokoi also recieved the award). This follwed Bandai selling 13 million units by October 1997.

Aki Maita also served as the public face of the tamagotchi brand following its release, being credited as its creator and featured in various promotional material. This continued until July 1997 when Akihiro Yokoi was also publicly credited for his role in the development by Bandai Chairman Makoto Yamashina.

In 2018, it was revealed in a televised interview that Aki Maita had been employed as the manager for the Japanese celebrity actress and J-pop singer Ikue Sakakibara.