The "1986" comes from the publication year of the book that the interview is from, Programmers at Work. In any case, the title is still accurate enough since Iwatani was producer and director, respectively, for Pac-Land (1984) and Pac-Mania (1987): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toru_Iwatani
The interview took place in 1986? Well, he's definitely pretty spot-on with his prediction of the future of game design.