1up.com wrote:

Most people who endorse massively successful properties featuring a huge picture of their own smiling face on the cover are more than content to sit back and collect fat royalty checks for the privilege. Then again, most people aren't Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, the man whose polygonal face has become synonymous with Nintendo's super-popular Brain Age series. Seems the good doctor recently decided to politely turn down an astounding $11 million in royalty payments that would otherwise have been paid out in compensation for his likeness featuring prominently in Nintendo's smash hit moneymaker. "Not a single yen has gone in my pocket" said Dr. Kawashima to Agence France-Presse. "Everyone in my family is mad at me, but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it." To date, Brain Age has sold about 17 million copies worldwide, generating about $22 million in back paid royalties for Dr. K. While his employment contract with Tohoku University stipulates that fully half the proceeds could legally be claimed as personal funds (with the other half going to Tohoku U.), the doctor has instead decided to funnel all his money into the worthy goal of funding more brain research. To date his contributions have helped the university finance a 300-million-yen lab at its Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (where Kawashima works) as well as another 400 million yen lab not due to be completed until March. On the whole, Kawashima seems pretty zen about his financial situation, stating that if he suddenly found himself in enough money to retire to a desert island he wouldn't take it. "I wouldn't know what to do there" he quips. "If I had such time to spare, I'd want to do my research." Interestingly, Kawashima also states that he has no problem with other scientists who want to get paid for similar celebrity endorsements. It's just that he personally just doesn't find money to be a motivating factor. Currently the doc collects a $100,000 paycheck for his service to the university and seems fine with that. The man is, however, extremely hardcore when it comes to the issue of letting his own sons play video games. Kawashima's four boys (ages 14-22) are only allowed them play games for a single hour on the weekend, and those who fail to observe the time limit get their disks broken as punishment. "What is scary about games" he reports "is that you can kill as many hours as you want. I don't think playing games is bad in itself but it makes children unable to do what they should do such as study and communication with the family. Having fun is not studying. Making [kids] study is not to entertain children but to pressure them to make efforts. People fall to lower and lower places unless they are driven to go higher." Kawashima's current project is working with Toyota to develop a car capable of keeping elderly drivers alert and aware in order to prevent accidents.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165881

Except how he punks his kids into not playing video games. That wasn't too cool.