How can I reach Takashi Iizuka for an Interview?

[SageOfTheStars]

I'd really like to be able to speak to Mr. Iizuka and ask him a few questions as part of something I'm working on. However, I don't know of any way to contact him, and he doesn't seem to have any social media. I know he shows up to conventions and fan events where fans can ask him questions, but none of these events are anywhere near where I live and I don't have the means right now to hop on a plane and fly to these things. Lots of people and press journals seem to be able to get interviews with him, so there must be a way to reach out to him. Does anyone have any advice on how to reach him, at least by email?

[Dreadknux]

Your best bet is maybe to try and reach out to the official Sonic/SEGA social media channels and ask for a moment of his time. The press tend to get access to Iizuka-san because part of his job is to help 'sell' the games he's working on to the media, and to do that he needs to speak with the press to tell them how good his game is. :) Similarly, press want to speak with him purely to ask him about the game he's currently working on and to ask him why he thinks it's any good. So long story short... the access there is a professional one and mutually beneficial.

Without knowing what you'd like to speak with Iizuka-san about, it's difficult for me to really offer any advice on how to contact him. But you might want to try (if social media doesn't work) sending a hand-written letter to the SEGA office in the US about what you're doing? I imagine you're mostly want to ask for advice on your project, right? Usually if you send companies a hand-written letter, they take the time to write you back.

Best of luck with it. :)

[SageOfTheStars]

1 hour ago, Dreadknux said:

Your best bet is maybe to try and reach out to the official Sonic/SEGA social media channels and ask for a moment of his time. The press tend to get access to Iizuka-san because part of his job is to help 'sell' the games he's working on to the media, and to do that he needs to speak with the press to tell them how good his game is. :) Similarly, press want to speak with him purely to ask him about the game he's currently working on and to ask him why he thinks it's any good. So long story short... the access there is a professional one and mutually beneficial.

Without knowing what you'd like to speak with Iizuka-san about, it's difficult for me to really offer any advice on how to contact him. But you might want to try (if social media doesn't work) sending a hand-written letter to the SEGA office in the US about what you're doing? I imagine you're mostly want to ask for advice on your project, right? Usually if you send companies a hand-written letter, they take the time to write you back.

Best of luck with it. :)

Thanks for the tips; I'll have to try those out.
The interviews that are concerned with the latest upcoming game make sense, but I've also seen ones that don't have any obvious "marketing value" for Sega, so to speak. Specifically, there's this neat interview that was released by Game Informer earlier this year where Iizuka talks about his early years with Sega and the Dreamcast and such (it's pretty neat; maybe you've watched it). 

What I want to ask Iizuka are some questions about the creative decisions behind one of Sega's past games, which he played a big creative role in. Without going into too much detail, I'm working on a project that's going to explore some story and character aspects of some of Sega's 2000s games, and if I could ask Takashi the questions I have, it would really enhance the project and the ideas I would explore. It would only be a handful of questions. Interviewing by email might honestly be the best approach for this I feel.