The fact that so many people are still saying that the creator of Pokemon is confirmed autistic is wild. We have exactly one interview where this was brought up, and it is highly unlikely that it was actually him in that interview.
The interview was conducted on MySpace in the early '00s. Trolls impersonating famous people were running rampant on all available social media during that era, and there was no reasonable means of verification of identity.
MySpace wasn't exactly widespread in Japan at the time, if it ever was at all. The possibility of a particulary famous Japanese individual using a primarily English platform for any reason at that point is highly unlikely.
The author who wrote the UNAUTHORIZED biography never actually met him in person or even talked on the phone with him and never got or gave concrete confirmation that it was actually Satoshi Tajiri running the MySpace page. The book is also riddled with other inaccuracies, which is more reason to be suspicious of this claim.
Tajiri-san himself has never said anything about it in any interviews given before or since. Anyone claiming he is autistic that is not Tajiri-san or his medical provider(s) is not in a position to make such a definitive claim on the matter.
Make no mistake, it would be AWESOME if it did actually turn out he's autistic. We need as much positive representation for neurodivergent folks as we can get, and so much about Tajiri-san and his story is worth admiring.
But the thing is we don't have any concrete, credible sources for any claims of his being neurodivergent.
Bulbapedia has looked into this. They're pretty intense about making sure they have accurate sources for their info, and discuss why they don't include this on their article about him here: https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Talk:Satoshi_Tajiri
DidYouKnowGaming has looked into this. It's the first thing they talk about in this video:
Even the folks at Wikipedia acknowledge there's no credible source for this claim, and they have really tightened up their sources and fact-checking in the last few years before any article edits are allowed to go through. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Satoshi_Tajiri
Again, it would be awesome if he does turn out to be autistic, especially considering how much the Pokemon communities and the autism community overlap and interact.
But it is 2024. Let's not armchair-diagnose strangers. Let's please make sure we have actual sources for our statements and stop spreading misinformation.
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