TOKYO—In some ways, Hisako Akitani’s videogame store was just another small family business that closed when its owners got older and tired of fighting the internet.
Yet when Ms. Akitani stood behind her shop counter for the last time on a recent Sunday, some of the top names in Japanese videogames, including companies like Sony Corp., came to pay tribute to a woman whose frankness made her one of the industry’s most powerful and unlikely influencers.
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