Many young people today see the game as the preserve of older people

April 6, 2024 12:20 AM

Previously played by children, Japan’s adult population first went ballistic for pachinko after the Second World War, when the first commercial pachinko parlor opened in Nagoya. Popularity peaked during the 1990s, with an estimated 30 million people in approximately 18,244 pachinko parlors across the country. Today, however, according to the National Police Agency, the number of pachinko parlors has fallen to 7,655 — a 9.3% decline from the previous year. from Is Japan’s Pachinko Industry in Decline? [Tokyo Weekender]

Previously

posted by chavenet (38 comments total)

I went back to Japan in the fall last year, for the first time in 30 years. One of the biggest changes I noticed was how many pachinko parlors have grown to mute their physical presence - where once it was common to see nothing but loud, garish displays and bright colours everywhere, now the buildings themselves look like drab mausoleums, all in brick or sandstone tones, with an absolute and distinct lack of eye-catching anything at all.

I asked a cousin about this, he said it's just no longer a thing for most people nowadays. I can't say I ever understood the appeal, to be honest.
posted by northtwilight at 12:39 AM on April 6 [6 favorites]

The appeal seems self-evident to me, in a way — it’s the world’s largest gambling industry, and people love to gamble
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:00 AM on April 6 [8 favorites]

There ought to be an inverse Betteridge's Law for articles that chronicle an industry's peak thirty years ago and recent continuous decline with a headline asking if it's in decline.
posted by rory at 2:25 AM on April 6 [11 favorites]

I'm not sure why I would want to go to a place that smells like cigarette smoke and is so noisy my ears ring, just to do something as boring as pachinko. But then, I also think slot machines are boring and people seem to like them.
posted by ctmf at 3:19 AM on April 6 [4 favorites]

random reinforcement schedules are a hell of a drug
posted by logicpunk at 5:02 AM on April 6 [20 favorites]

Pachinko machines are beautiful! Their appeal is very high, to me. A shame that the art form of making them is in decline. Much cooler than a slot machine, for me. Something about all those little randomish balls bouncing around.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:30 AM on April 6 [11 favorites]

I have lived in Japan coming on 20 years and I have spent a total of about 30 seconds in a pachinko parlor. Upon entering you are assailed by a cacophony of sound: pachinko machines clicking and clacking and ringing, and deafening loud music on the speakers. Cigarette smoke as thick as you've ever inhaled. It was disgusting, and at the time I was a smoker!

Seriously, it was one of the least comfortable places I've ever been to. Makes a Vegas casino seem like a Zen retreat. It's amazing to me that people spend hours and hours in there. I lasted barely a minute. Good riddance to pachinko, there's nothing cool about it.
posted by zardoz at 6:02 AM on April 6 [13 favorites]

The infographic on this page shows Japan's demographic challenge; Japan will have a constant population of ~35 million elderly people out of 2070, but the working-age middle will be shrinking over this time.

For pachinko parlors, it's not a bad thing if it's an old-person hobby (that's Japan's only* 'growth industry'), but if pachinko is a postwar fad that is winding down with that generation then GG I guess.

*perhaps becoming a destination tourism market for Chinese people is also a thing
posted by torokunai at 6:07 AM on April 6 [3 favorites]

Oh good this is where I get to complain that my father got rid of the 1970's era pachinko machine we had in my childhood without even asking me if I wanted it. It's been...35? years and I am STILL MAD ABOUT IT.
posted by cooker girl at 6:29 AM on April 6 [33 favorites]

Does this mean we finally get Silent Hills?
posted by The Manwich Horror at 6:37 AM on April 6 [7 favorites]

When I was a kid, I had a friend who had an actual Japanese pachinko machine his dad had brought home from when he was stationed there in the army. I loved that thing, and kept pestering my poor parents to get me a pachinko machine for birthdays, Christmas, etc. How the hell I thought they were going to do this escapes me now.

But finally they actually got me some kind of cheap plastic thing that was in no way able to replicate the pachinko experience. I hope I hid my disappointment from them because god knows they tried. But I probably didn't.
posted by Naberius at 6:40 AM on April 6 [7 favorites]

So young people aren't gambling physically - in person - in Pachinko Parlours, but has anyone done any research how many of that same (younger) demographic are instead gambling in mobile games phones or via game LootBoxes?
posted by Faintdreams at 6:54 AM on April 6 [3 favorites]

I scored a place on a business trip to Japan in the early 90s and yeah I remember going into one pachinko parlor in Tokyo just because. The sound! Like a thousand chains slipping off a thousand sprockets.

Of course, the sound of a busy Vegas slot-machine hall is equally chaotic, and people like immersing themselves for hours in that, too.
posted by Artful Codger at 6:58 AM on April 6 [2 favorites]

are instead gambling in mobile games phones or via game LootBoxes?

This is it right here. You might as well ask, "Where did all the adult theaters go? Is pornography on the decline?"

No, it's just being replaced by a cheaper and more convenient form.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:00 AM on April 6 [13 favorites]

Upon entering you are assailed by a cacophony of sound: pachinko machines clicking and clacking and ringing,

Want to hear this, it sounds like it would be divine! I make noise music though.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:16 AM on April 6 [4 favorites]

Do you have a bandcamp, tiny frying pan? *ding ding ding ding ding*
posted by moonmilk at 7:51 AM on April 6 [1 favorite]

Pachinko was born at a time when the typical office was also loud and smoky. Nowadays the contrast is so glaring no wonder younger people nope out. t
posted by ocschwar at 7:51 AM on April 6 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I have never vibed with pachinko. And I am a gamer, and played lots of pinball. Pinball without any flippers! You might win money! Never saw the appeal...
posted by Windopaene at 8:00 AM on April 6 [2 favorites]

When I was a kid, my grandparents owned a little bagatelle game, mentioned in the article as a precursor of pachinko. It was illustrated with baseball motifs. I fondly remember playing with it. But holy shit did it have some racist illustrations. Just the entirely casual, un-self-conscious racism found on many things produced in the early 20th century in America.
posted by biogeo at 8:26 AM on April 6 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure why I would want to go to a place that smells like cigarette smoke and is so noisy my ears ring

One reason is they usually have a restroom in the back, or at least a sink where you can wash your hands (as seen in this clip from Wim Wenders' 1985 "Tokyo Ga").

For a really early pachinko experience, before they thought to let you sit down while playing, see this scene from Ozu's "Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice" (1952).
posted by Rash at 8:46 AM on April 6 [8 favorites]

1974 Nishijin Model A Vintage Pachinko Machine Restored.

I could absolutely not be in a room full of these things for more than a couple minutes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:07 AM on April 6 [2 favorites]

The only time I was in Japan was in 2007, and there were definitely pachinko parlors of the old super loud march music and flashy colors and lights school there. I tried it, because it was definitely part of Japanese culture at the time, and I can say that pachinko is one of the more intensely boring things I've ever done.

It's not as bad as slot machines, I'll give it that, but ugh it's boring. Like slot machines they are gambling in a form that is only attractive even to its fans in that there is the potential for cash payouts. The parlor I went to, naturally, had a small little side building which had a small slot through which you could push your little plastic trinkets bought for zillions of balls and get back money.

So I'm not surprised that pachinko is dying off. It's interesting, from a gaming evolution standpoint since it came from early American pinball which, like pachinko, had no real means of influencing the outcome once the ball was launched. American pinball went one direction, with the advent of flippers, pachinko went another by launching many small balls instead of one big ball, but you can definitely see the relationship.

I'll also note that while smoking is still depressingly common in Japan the younger generations are smoking less so the classic smoke filled pachinko parlor is going to be less appealing to younger people.

I think to a large extent gacha type games have invaded the mindspace that pachinko once dominated and are taking over. If you're going to waste money on pointless gambling then having it conveniently on your phone is going to be a huge plus.
posted by sotonohito at 9:32 AM on April 6 [3 favorites]

snuffleupagus Remember, that's vintage, the modern machines are a lot louder and don't require manually launching the balls as seen in that video. These days you just twist a knob and it launches them automatically as long as you're keeping it turned. Here's the same guy with an example of a newer machine.

Now put that in a dim smoky room filled with flashing lights, LOUD marching music, and hundreds of those types of machines rattling and playing their little songs when a ball hits the right place....
posted by sotonohito at 9:38 AM on April 6 [3 favorites]

My dad got a couple of then when I was a kid: he did inport/export to Asia, and I think he was curious if they would be popular in 1970s/80s Minnesota. (They were not.)

But we had one in the basement and I loooooved hitting that flipper bar. The back was exposed so we would just reach around to the bottom hopper and grab all the balls, and pour them back into the starter.

I should ask him if I can have it....
posted by wenestvedt at 9:48 AM on April 6 [4 favorites]

I hate gambling, think it should be illegal for any business to run a business based on profiting from gambling. I'm also willing to extend that to the stock market casino traded businesses but that's another can of terrible capitalist worms.

At the same time, I like the craft and art of Pachinko machines despite its disgusting purpose and goals. Not so much actually playing them but just the hyper excess of attention grabbing nonsense and endless escalation over ball bearings dropping. In a world without gambling or capitalism, an errant pachinko machine here or there might be a nice temporary diversion in some settings just for amusement. People like shiny things, watching physics happen, random chance and attempting to control it.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:00 AM on April 6 [2 favorites]

cooker_girl: SO WOULD I BE, TOO. What is it with parents? I tell (project on) all my friends to take a picture of their kids' rooms every year, just for fun. Maybe the whole house. At least know if your kid is nostalgic!

Pachinko absolutely falls into that bucket for me. It was a thing in the mid-late 70s? There were one or three spread throughout the neighborhood, owned by an older brother or Hot-Rod Dad, and you got to play it twice that one summer. From that I could watch them all day, pity I didn't think to look for a parlor in Tokyo when I went. Next time!

It doesn't surprise me that they were a bust as a US fad, weren't they pretty expensive? I want to say at least somewhere in the hundreds of 1970s dollars.
posted by rhizome at 11:42 AM on April 6 [3 favorites]

Now put that in a dim smoky room filled with flashing lights, LOUD marching music, and hundreds of those types of machines rattling and playing their little songs when a ball hits the right place....

Chuck E. Cheese's but with old people and also in hell


Also, Sega. :[
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:45 AM on April 6 [4 favorites]

The Manwich Horror has already alluded to Japanese gaming giant Konami's focus on pachinko. There are Gradius, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania games that only exist in pachinko form.

To go a little off topic though, it turns out that former US gaming giants Williams and Midway (then-subsidiaries of of what used to be known as WMS Industires) are in the same boat. When they left pinball and the general gaming entertainment industry back at the beginning of the 2000s, their parent company, first called Scientific Games, then "Light & Wonder" (feh), still makes slot machines, and of the ire I felt when I learned they used their Attack From Mars pinball property to make a slot machine.

Between Konami and what-used-to-be Williams, and the proliferation of video slots throughout the US in places that used to have arcade games, they've caused me to take an innate disdain for gambling and develop it into absolute revulsion. So I can't say that I'm displeased to hear pachinko is in decline, and I heartily wish that slot machines sink beneath the waves.
posted by JHarris at 11:51 AM on April 6 [5 favorites]

Metafilter: Many young people today see the game as the preserve of older people
posted by kokaku at 12:03 PM on April 6 [9 favorites]

> When I was a kid, I had a friend who had an actual Japanese pachinko machine his dad had brought home from when he was stationed there in the army

I wonder if this is a thing American military and military-adjacent mid 20th century brats have in common: the friend whose family had a pachinko machine. (Also the glass-fronted cabinet with the Japanese dolls.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:29 PM on April 6 [3 favorites]

Claw machines are equally rigged but a lot more fun.
posted by praemunire at 2:12 PM on April 6 [1 favorite]

Claw machines are more rigged. Pachinko and slot machines are generally agreed upon to be luck, but claw machines present the illusion of skill when many times they cannot be won on a given play.
posted by JHarris at 3:21 PM on April 6 [3 favorites]

I wonder if this is a thing American military and military-adjacent mid 20th century brats have in common

That's how we had our two vintage, manual-flipper, open back machines. They were supposed to be wall mounted but we just had stands. I don't know if I spent more hours playing or being fascinated by the machinery in the back.

My dad ALSO disposed of them without asking if I wanted them (YES).
posted by ctmf at 5:05 PM on April 6 [5 favorites]

I don't know if I spent more hours playing

But those had the illusion of a skill element, you could alter your flipping force and try to get a ball to enter just where you wanted it, which was in theory replicable if you found a good spot.

The modern rapid-fire waterfall of dozens of balls at once automatically is too much to watch, runs through your ball stash too fast, and feels completely out of your control (like slot machines)
posted by ctmf at 5:07 PM on April 6 [1 favorite]

Yes, what Zardoz said: the visual and auditory cacophony of these joints is hard to convey in print or even in video.

I haven't been in Japan since the 80's, and a lot of things have changed. The pachinko scene, yeah, and the new "JK Business" (schoolgirl districts).

I dabbled in the seedier side of Japan back then, but, going with my family-friendly family next year (some of us are part Japanese), I'll have to pass on the more degenerate flowerings of the floating world dimension of Japan.
posted by kozad at 7:26 PM on April 6 [1 favorite]

I have a loathing for pachinko like little else here in Japan. I will go out of my way to avoid walking past a parlor simply because whenever I do, there's always someone coming out or going in, and the cacophony that pours out is honestly painful to me. The prevalence of them is one reason I'm almost always wearing in ear headphones when I walk around. The stench of tobacco was another assault on the sense, though a lot of places have become non-smoking, or at least have non-smoking sections by the front doors, but even then, I would shed a tear if the entire industry collapsed tonight.

It's bad enough walking by the places around train stations just before ten o'clock, with an ever present line of people waiting for the doors to open so they can rush in and get the best machines. Getting a drivers license here has exposed me to just how many of these places dot suburban and rural Chiba. Got a random, Wal-mart-sized building alone in the middle of nowhere, with a completely full parking lot? That's going to be pachinko.

Hell, I'm still pissed about the post-Tohoku earthquake months where Japan was running a severe energy deficit, and was asking businesses and residents to voluntarily reduce power consumption. Most businesses did, and outdoor lighted signs went dark across the country. Supermarkets and other stores ran half the lights they usually did, but pachinko kept going full bore, brightly lit signs, obnoxious noises. It was just a total, "nah, fuck that" response to a nationwide crisis.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:04 PM on April 7 [6 favorites]

The description reminds me of those coin drop / push forward games where the coins are so tantalizingly and precariously positioned at the edge of a giant payday and which press all my skill/luck tradeoff buttons; I really need adult supervision most times.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:42 PM on April 7 [3 favorites]

GRADIUS
posted by rhizome at 2:25 PM on April 10 [1 favorite]