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Takahashi Toshiyuki, better known as Takahashi Meijin, is a renowned gaming personality in Japan. One of his famous quotes, however, says, “Don’t play more than an hour of games each day.” This sounds like a mother nagging her game-addicted child and perhaps not too convincing coming from someone who plays games for a living. You might wonder, “Why is this guy telling me that I should only play for an hour each day when he probably plays all day long? How am I going to be a world Pokémon champion if I don’t play enough?” However, it appears that there is more to Takahashi’s quote.

The full quote from Takahashi reads,

“Don’t play more than an hour of games each day. Go out and play. Work and study hard. When you do better, you’ll enjoy the games more, too. You are the future of our country.”

It seems like Takahashi was not simply nagging at young people to stay away from their consoles. He had mentioned in a previous interview, “If you want to become really good at video games, just focus and play for an hour a day. After that, go outside and play.” Certainly once Takahashi became pro he had to play for more than an hour a day. Nevertheless, this is a piece of great advice, not only for aspiring pro-gamers who are probably destroying their eyesight and health by sitting 23 out of 24 hours a day in front of a computer screen, but also for regular people like us (Full disclosure: One time, we got hooked on Puzzle & Dragons and accidentally wasted away half a day staring at our phone).

Some Japanese netizens were touched by Takahashi’s words:

“I wanted to say, ‘There is no way an hour is enough!’ but after reading the rest of his quote, I have to admit it is meaningful.”

“Everyone needs to know this.”

“I am going to show this to my child who likes video games but hates studying and going outside.”

Others were defiant:

“Playing for only an hour a day would be like hell to me.”

“Recently there are a lot of games that you have to play for more than an hour…”

Were you inspired by Takahashi’s words? Perhaps an hour is not quite enough to satisfy your entertainment needs, but I’m pinning this to my wall to remind myself to be a little more productive each day!

Source/feature image: Byokan Sunday