Shinji Hashimoto

Shinji Hashimoto 橋本 真司
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Video game producer
Years active	1995-present
Title	Executive producer of Square Enix

Shinji Hashimoto (橋本 真司, Hashimoto Shinji^?) is a Japanese game producer at Square Enix. He currently serves as the Final Fantasy series Brand Manager, as an Executive Officer at Square Enix and the Head of Square Enix's Business Division 3. He is also the co-creator of the Kingdom Hearts series. He served as corporate executive of the company's 1st Production Department during its entire existence.

Hashimoto previously worked for the toy company Bandai. He currently works for Square Enix, which he joined in 1995.

He was the promotions producer for Final Fantasy VII. When asked at E3 2008 about the possibility of a remake of Final Fantasy VII, he said that Square Enix is aware fans would like that, and that they are very busy making other titles first. As Final Fantasy X-2 and Kingdom Hearts were being completed, the learning experience the team had during the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII project spawned the Fabula Nova Crystallis series which was supposed to build on it.

When Square was sharing a building in Tokyo with the Disney corporation, Hashimoto found himself conversing in an elevator with a Disney executive, and there they conceived of a Disney/Square Enix video game eventually called Kingdom Hearts. Hashimoto has stated that the new features in Kingdom Hearts II were the result of the success of the first game and Disneys increased trust in Square Enix to pull off an excellent product.

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