[4] Waichiro was the manager of Arakawa Textiles, and was more concerned with maintaining positive relationships with suppliers and customers than growing the company.

[2] Arakawa began studying at Kyoto University in 1964, taking general classes for the first two years before focusing on civil engineering.

[6] He graduated with a master's degree in 1969,[2] before moving to Boston in 1971 to continue studying civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[3][15][16] Starting in 1985, he and Howard Lincoln were instrumental in rebuilding the North American video game industry from the crash of 1983, with the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

[18] In January 2002, Arakawa resigned as NoA president and was succeeded by Tatsumi Kimishima, former chief financial officer of Nintendo's Pokémon subsidiary.