A crowd of about 1,800 people cheered and groaned as winning numbers were picked for the annual End of Year Jumbo Lottery ceremony Wednesday at Tokyo Koseinenkin Kaikan in Shinjuku Ward.
According to Mizuho Bank, 68 people are estimated to win the ¥200 million first prize, while 136 second-place winners are expected to take home ¥100 million. The actual number of winners will be confirmed later.
This year, sales of lottery tickets brought in about ¥204.5 billion, up some ¥5.8 billion from last year. About 46 percent of the money is used for prizes.
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Jumbo Lottery, held every New Year's Eve, there was an additional drawing for a ¥1 million prize.
To pick the winners, arrows are fired from a machine at a spinning wheel bearing numbers. Those chosen are the ones closest to where the arrows struck.