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Already in decline, Japan's pachinko industry now braces for gambling-addiction regulations
Like many pachinko parlors throughout Japan, Naomi Suzuki's establishment on the outskirts of the city of Fukushima was once full of energy, with the din of bouncing steel balls and garish lights flashing to indicate winnings. But business is quieter for her these days as ...
Pachinko parlors are losing their balls while Japan considers a cashless economy
With the Diet's passing of a law last December that will legalize casino gambling, many are wondering how this development will affect the few forms of tightly controlled gambling and gaming that have been permitted up to now — like pachinko (a type of ...
Government crafts way to ban gambling addicts from casinos, pachinko parlors
The government and the ruling parties plan to propose a system that will allow pachinko parlors and other gambling facilities to ban “serious” gambling addicts.
Pachinko industry raises money for low-income students, but critics call it a marketing stunt
The pachinko industry is urging customers to donate steel balls from their winnings to help put hard-up students through university. But anti-gambling activists have dismissed the campaign as a marketing stunt that does nothing to address problems with gambling addiction. "The aim is to help people ...
'Pachinko' author Min Jin Lee on how Japan's ethnic Koreans keep beating the odds
"I got lost all the time," says writer Min Jin Lee with a charming laugh, sitting in a hotel lobby in San Francisco's Japantown. Before a promotional appearance at a bookstore, she spoke to The Japan Times about writing her new novel "Pachinko," a historical ...
'Pachinko': Min Jin Lee writes the struggle of an ethnic Korean family in Japan
Min Jin Lee's second novel, "Pachinko," charts the fortunes and misfortunes of four generations of a Korean family. Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee.490 pages GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING, Fiction. Beginning in Yeongdo in 1910 with the marriage of Hoonie and Yangjin against the backdrop of Japanese annexation of ...
Even without casinos, pachinko-related gambling accounts for 4% of Japan's GDP
Even before Shinzo Abe's government opened the door to casinos in Japan, the nation's gamblers wagered ¥23.3 trillion on pachinko and related slot machines in 2015. Even though the market is shrinking as the population ages and finds other forms of entertainment, and the amount ...
Pachinko parlor arsonist loses appeal against death sentence
The nation's top court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of arson in which five people died. The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Sunao Takami's appeal against a lower court ruling in the 2009 case, in which he poured gasoline on the ...
Kobe issues ordinance banning pachinko, other gambling-type activities at elderly centers
As Japan's elderly population grows, some day-care centers are offering users pachinko, card games and other forms of entertainment as a pastime — as if they are playing at casinos. But Kobe has taken action against those day-care businesses, saying addictions to such activities will ...
Niraku Corp., an operator of pachinko parlors, plans to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange where its stock is expected to start trading around April 8, sources close to the matter said Monday. Fukushima-based Niraku is expected to raise some ¥5 billion ($41.7 ...
Is happiness worth the risk of addiction?
You'll have heard this story before, in one form or another. "Mr. B," 66, is a pachinko addict. Hard core. Until a certain fateful day 10 years ago there were no premonitory signs, unless straight-arrow conventionality to the point of dullness is one. Company man, ...
Pachinko parlors bet on tidiness to reverse decline
The once-booming pachinko industry, grappling with a graying customer base and the threat of new competition from casinos, is adopting a softer touch and smoke-free zones to lure a new generation of players, particularly women. Pachinko, a modified version of pinball, is a fading national ...
