Newsweek on Japan, arcade mecca
by Christopher Grant 
{ Aug 8th 2006 at 12:05PM }
There are still boardwalk arcades chocked full of broken light gun games; there are still corporate arcade chains full of overpriced, out-dated racing cabinets and the requisite redemption games. Clearly, the American arcade isn't a corpse just yet, but when you read about Japan's booming arcades, you can almost smell rotting circuitry. Newsweek's Brad Stone has an interesting (web-only) column on the booming arcade scene in Japan; however, underneath the bright lights and fancy interfaces of these two-storied gaming meccas lies a serious social problem:
"Japan is facing a looming demographic nightmare. With an increasing elderly population and a decreasing birth rate, there simply won't be enough workers to support the senior population. At the same time, young people dubbed neets (who live with their parents and refuse to get jobs), and freeters (who only have part-time work) are much-discussed social groups who exacerbate the population and workforce imbalance."
The entrance to the arcades are littered with pamphlets encouraging youngsters to put down their [Japanese equivalent of quarters] and pick up a paycheck. Are these people addicted to games, is this symptomatic of much larger societal ills, or are their arcade games really just that good?
[Via GSW]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Erich @ Aug 8th 2006 12:16PM
Freeter and neets are a symptoms of much larger social and economic problems in Japan right now. Videogames are only one of many distractions for these groups, not the cause.
Trogdor @ Aug 8th 2006 12:19PM
The games are not that good, if the arcades were not there they would find others places to hang out and spend their parents money.
32_Footsteps @ Aug 8th 2006 12:21PM
Well, I can name one thing that has been killing the American arcade experience for ages - poor maintenance. Most arcades I've been to couldn't care less if you pulled your pants down and crapped in the coin slot. Spilled soda makes the buttons stick and starts to corrode the cabinets themselves (carboxylic acid - you work slowly, but effectively). The hardware starts to get buggy and your only solution is to toggle the power switch a couple of times.
I know of one arcade (the student center at MIT) where this isn't the case and actual care goes into the maintenance of the machines (they've probably replaced the sensors in their DDR machines about 30 or 40 times). Beyond that, they just don't care. And who wants to go to an arcade where they don't take care of the machines?
Drew @ Aug 8th 2006 12:27PM
Well I guess once their grandparents don't have anyone to support them it'll be up to their parents, and the parents won't then have the resources to support their worthless kids anymore, forcing the kids to go out and get jobs.
Agent MOO @ Aug 8th 2006 12:43PM
There are many possible reasons for the decline in arcades, but the main thing I think is the huge increase in the accessibility of games at home.
A few others...
* People are getting lazier, and stay home for these things
* The target demographic for many games has shifted from the previous loitering high school age to 18 - 45.
* Multiplayer games are easy to setup and play on computers and consoles, and it is easy to find opponents.
* Arcade boxes require property to house them, maintenance, per-title costs for the publisher. Distribution for games on consoles is much more profitable with the razor and blades model. The fixed expense for the publisher on consoles is the royalty, without having to engineer and deploy a console. PC gaming is even more profitable, plus successful MMORPG's are able to establish a cash farm.
* Time. It takes a long time, and a steady stream of quarters to play through a game in an arcade, which makes it difficult to tell a story.
* Variable difficulty. Not everyone is on the same level, home games allow players to tune the game easier or harder to their liking so they can enjoy the game. In an arcade you curse at the machine and go to another one.
NES @ Aug 8th 2006 1:08PM
At least now i know and odnt feel bad why xbox aint selling because the non working bums cant afford it!! no wonder nintendo does so great, If i didnt have a job id play with cartoon dogs and get down with plumber who obvious dont have plumbing jobs GET A JOB!!!
YO-Q @ Aug 8th 2006 1:14PM
post #5 and what Japan doesnt have home consoles? they get the consoles and games first and arcades still are booming up there. I go to the arcade at least 3-4 days a week it is the last one downtown and it pisses me off how they wont invest in the place. he owns the property. It needs to be renovated everytime it rains the back floods and that is dangerous for the games blah whatever I am done
Yuki~Summer Ver.~ @ Aug 8th 2006 1:35PM
Actually, their arcades are pretty sweet. I went to Japan last summer, and I must say you could waste a ton of money on some of those games.
Redeemer31 @ Aug 8th 2006 1:56PM
@#6 NES
Do you always pull stuff out of your ass when you talk about something you have no clue about? Maybe they don't buy the XBox because they don't want to buy it?
Anyways, Japanese arcades are pretty cool places to hang out. I always did that when I was bored in Japan. Main thing I love about their arcades is that you can actually sit down and play instead of having to stand up like with most North American arcades.
And the Japanese equivalent to quarters would probably be the 100 yen coin. That's the standard rate for a credit I believe. I have seen some places that have lowered the price down to 50 yen, maybe even less.
OtakuCODE @ Aug 8th 2006 2:05PM
Maybe in Japan they've discovered that there is more to life than simply accepting the birth/school/marriage/work/death pattern. Maybe they're putting more priority on being a happy person, content with their circumstances, rather than being rabidly consumerist or achievement-oriented. Simply because a society isn't chugging along the same way as yours doesn't mean it's wrong. And you can't expect the psychotic work ethic that was spread in Japan for the past handful of decades to not have massive side effects. If you push the societal pendulum in one direction, it will swing back in the other direction eventually.
T-Bag @ Aug 8th 2006 2:08PM
Ahh the arcade, how I miss you so.
cringer8 @ Aug 8th 2006 2:30PM
I love GameWorks. No quarters, just hourly play. And they have a bar. As a matter of fact, I'll be there in an hour.
Arcades aren't dead here in US, just the small ones you used to remember as a kid. Big arcades are alive and well (thanks to Sega [who now owns GameWorks]). I recommend you look up your closest arcade and check out some the new games and innovations offered.
Ugggh, I hate summertime though...all those kids off from school...but I can deal with it if I'm drunk enough :)
Drew @ Aug 8th 2006 2:42PM
#10 ... they are living with their parents... I don't care how much you want to shrug off the shackles of consumerism and have fun; you can't just parasitically feed off of your parents' hard work your whole life.
Sam Goldman @ Aug 8th 2006 2:53PM
Maybe I'm just old, but shouldn't any discussion about the decline of the American arcade at least have a small mention of the dearth of new pinball games out today? Pinball games were as much a part of any arcade as anything else throughout the years. Hell, I still have fond memories of playing the Demolition Man pinball game.
Eh, it's probably me being old.
epobirs @ Aug 8th 2006 2:58PM
#10
It's not a matter of Japan behaving according to our standards. It's a question of Japan disappearing from the face of the planet as a functional nation. This isn't a new concern there. The increasing burden of care for the elderly has been a common subject for decades, even finding its way into anime:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0102812/
Japanese business has been very aware of their shrinking base of young customers. Brain Age wasn't just a designer's whim but rather a highly targeted product.
There is some legitimate worry that 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' could become the defining theme of Japan as an increasing number of people of the child producing age are exercising the ultimate birth control by having no sexual relationships in their lives. Electronically aided masturbation becomes preferred for its lack of conflict.
It's even worse in some places. Russia has less of an elder care issue thanks to raging alcoholism but the demographic shrinkage is dramatic. They've been losing the equivalent of a Seattle every year since the 90s. (Not that I'd necessarily miss the actual Seattle but we're just talking numbers.)
People are still taught to be afraid of the population explosion, despite the leading popularizer of the idea being proven wrong on every one of his claims, but most aren't aware that the end of population growth at current rates is within this century and potentially a lot sooner if the rate of demographic shrinkage grows.
Having the world's population balance out at some point in the future is not a bad thing but getting there the wrong way can be very destructive. A lot could be lost along the way.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501faessay83307/phillip-longman/the-global-baby-bust.html
WamBam @ Aug 8th 2006 3:06PM
I lived in Tokyo for a while and had lots of friends that were freeloaders or milked a part time job while living with their parents. My experiene was that it's very expensive to live in one's own place whether you buy or rent. It's easy to devote most of one's paycheck to rent or a mortgage, nevermind the utilities and other living expenses. In addition, one doesn't have to have a job in order to get have health insurance (unlike the US).
However, in places like Tokyo there are lots of reasons why it doesn't make sense to hang out at your house. First, no one wants to hang out with their parents and chances are that whether you live with your parents or not, you're definitely living in a small place that can get quite claustrophobic and is not big enough to have friends over. Second, there's alot of commuting in Japan. You could live hours away from your place and going home after work could take hours. So, there are so many places devoted to killing time or at least, places that allow you to spend hours and hours away from home.
You can literally wander for hours and hours, going in and our of arcades, restaurants, bars and karoake bars (where it's cheaper to drink, btw!) in places like Shibuya and Shinjuku. Japan's famous Love Hotels exist so people can have sex without having to go all the way home and/or tip toe around one's parents to get laid. Not only that, but there are plenty of cheap places to sleep and shower in Japan. There are those beehive hotels, but I also found small rooms for rent in Manga shops, video game stores and even a couple bars. I also saw a lot of young people sleeping on trains or in doorways.
Anyway, my 2 cents.
Matt @ Aug 8th 2006 4:47PM
Somewhat unrelated- but I'd just like to chime in that I love how in Asian cultures it's considered okay to whack misbehaving teenagers and children in the head with a fan, or smack them on the forehead with your hand. At least, that's what some of their cinema would have us believe. Sure wish we had that over here in the West. No welts, mind you, just a good loud, *smack*!
However, there's nothin' better than watching Takeshi Kitano beat the crap out of that punk kid at the start of "Violent Cop." Good times.
RisingSunofNihon @ Aug 8th 2006 5:57PM
It's completely normal in Japan for kids to live with their parents until they get married. This is true whether they work full-time jobs or hang out in game centers all day long. So to imply that only arcade patrons "freeload" off their parents is highly inaccurate.
btribble @ Aug 8th 2006 6:08PM
It seemed to me that one of the reasons arcades are still popular in Japan is that the area around train stations are still big places to hang out, go shopping, and generally waste time. Some of the results for a GIS of "shotengai" (kind of a covered outdoor market / shopping street) show what I mean. While not as booming as a few decades ago, arcades can easily be found in a shotengai.
Similarly, one of the best places for an arcade in the US was at the shopping mall. It was enclosed, walkable, generally with smaller stores. Recently however malls have begun to be replaced by big complexes with a movie theater, Best Buy, Kids R Us, Old Navy, Krispy Kreme, and a mid-price chain restaurant or two. It's outdoors, has a huge parking lot in the middle, and you generally go to one store without walking around. Not much chance to pass by an arcade and waste a few minutes.
Find a place where people hang out waiting, or spending their free time, and you can put a successful arcade there. It seems that people in the US just spend their free time at home! Only other place I can think of is at a movie theater lobby.
Shigg @ Aug 8th 2006 6:43PM
I second WamBam. I just got back from Shinjuku and the number of arcades and karaoke spots is staggering (Club Code is shutdown?!?). I killed a few nights at Club Sega and some 50yen joint easily. I also noticed the number of freeloaders out there; it's 'spensive! I don't blame them but there could be catastrophic economic damage due to the weakening work force. Also, saying get a job doesn't help either. What might end up happening is the housing market might bust due to low demand and jobs might pay more. Plus when Mommy and Daddy pass, those 'kids' will realize that they'll have to do something to survive.
Who knows, they might emigrate to a cheaper country like the US.
Evan @ Aug 8th 2006 8:44PM
In Japan, it's common for teenagers to go outside in order to use their cell-phones and text-message in private (at least, away from their parents). They don't really want to spend all that much time in a crowded home with their parents hanging over them.