"Principe de Asturias" awards have a nationwide recognizement in Spain but are awarded and celebrated on my relatively small hometown in northern Spain.
Purely anecdotal, but given how popular he was with the younger generations, and how much attention his nomination was garnering, they decided to organize one special event with him on stage on the local theater, a couple of days prior to the award. I was able to get one invitation and the streets/theatre were full packed of people, which surprised me quite a bit as I didn't expect my hometown of all places to be so full of Miyamoto fans as it seemed. For one day it was all full of people dressing as Mario, Link, and the like.
Then one year later I had to move to Japan for a year, and no one of my japanese friend knew who he was, even among gamers. In fact of my group of local friends I think I was the one most interested on non-mobile gaming by far, which was quite the clash for the 25 year old me and the ideas of Japan I brought with me back then.