A recently released report by the Japan Productivity Center noted a steady decrease in leisure expenditures. In 2010, the Japanese public spent ¥67.97 trillion on recreation, a 2.1 percent decrease from the previous year and the second year in a row that statistic registered a deficit. Certain activities, however, have posted increases. Driving and eating out remain the most popular things people spend money on during their free time. They also spent about 1 percent more on theatrical films, tourism and amusement parks in 2010; and expenditures for activities "promoted on television" saw a 6.2 percent increase. The pastimes that contributed to the minus figure were mainly sports (except for bicycling and running) and goraku (distractions), a euphemism for what are generally considered non-constructive pleasures, such as gambling, pachinko and computer or arcade games.
Spending on goraku, in fact, was down by a whopping 4.7 percent, a reality that has prodded the arcade industry, both operators and game producers, to concentrate promotion on a demographic that they previously ignored: the elderly. As reported in this space last year, pachinko has become more popular in recent years among retired people who have nothing better to do and few opportunities for social interaction. However, the majority of older folks are on fixed incomes, and pachinko can be expensive. According to the Asahi Shimbun many are now turning to game arcades, or "game centers" in the Japanese parlance, and the arcades themselves are bending over backwards to accommodate them.