Kojima actually never asked Yoji Shinkawa to join his new studio. Shinkawa says, "It just happened naturally. I had absolutely no anxiety about it."
Interviewer:
Shinkawa-san, you are one of the founding members of the studio, but did Kojima-san specifically ask you to join him?
Hideo Kojima:
No, not really. (Laughs)
Yoji Shinkawa:
It just happened naturally. (Laughs)
I mean, if Kojima-san was going to continue creating things, I wanted to do it with him. I honestly had absolutely no anxiety about it. I just figured I’d be working with him the exact same way I always have.
Interviewer:
So you didn't even need to exchange words about it.
Yoji Shinkawa:
Before Kojima-san went independent, around the latter half of 2015, I was visiting galleries and art museums a lot to get some creative energy. Purely by chance, I ran into Yoshitaka Amano-sensei (Illustrator for the Final Fantasy series).
When I told him, "I'm leaving the company," he immediately said, "You're going to keep working with Kojima-san, right? You absolutely should stick with him."
Looking back, I think he was completely right.