The efficacious father of Mario, Link and Donkey Kong has been proclaimed the winner of the 2012 Prince of Asturias award for Communication and Humanities.

The Prince of Asturias Foundation, named for the then twelve-year-old Spanish Prince of Asturias in 1980, aims to "reward the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanistic work performed at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions" and the Communication and Humanities award is given to those “whose creative work or research in humanistic activities as a whole or in relation to the social communication media, within the framework of the sciences and disciplines that both activities comprise, represents a significant contribution to universal culture”.

This year, 21 candidates from around the world ran for the title, and Miyamoto's award is the third of eight separate awards to be given this year - the thirty-second year that the Foundation has been running.