Japan's Biggest Gaming Obsession Explained | Pachinko

[Music] an estimated 1 in 10 people in Japan play in a market valued at 200 billion dollars a year there's scarcely a street across the country that doesn't have it and you'll often hear it for yousir loud confusing and a national obsession this is pachinko if you've never set foot in Japan there's a good chance they'll have never heard of between code I had no idea what it was until my first day in Japan when I accidentally stumbled into a pachinko parlor in central Tokyo and was subsequently deafened by the noise of hundreds of shrieking machines and thousands of ball bearings being blasted in every direction I think the best way to describe a chinko is it's part arcade game it's part gambling and part noise it's just bars to sound believable the wise between doe popular how do you play I don't really have the answers to these questions I'm all for it so today I've enlisted the help of a good friend who is a retired veteran for pachinko and he's going to share with us the secrets to success isn't that right nasca hello everyone let's catch Iker let's go [Music] pachinko has its roots in Chicago in the early 20th century when gaming manufacturers started selling the Corinth game a children's version of Bagatelle pinball in the 1920s the game made it to Asia becoming a hit in Japan where it became a staple of Japanese sweet shops as a means of getting children to stick around and stuff themselves with more candy and it soon got the nickname of Patti Patti and onomatopoeia referring to the noisy popping and snapping sounds of the game in the 1930s the game found a more mature audience when the board was turned upright and made larger however World War II began most of the machines were scratch free metal [Music] for a time the game disappeared and didn't reinter the late 1940s but it wasn't until after World War two that pachinko became really popular with a surplus of metal ball bearings and factories across the country and an entertainment sector desperate to be filled there wasn't long before pachinko took the country by storm typically most the chinko powers each ball represents four yen with players depositing 500 yen into the machine in return for 125 balls in the first 30 years for chinko is very mechanical it all depended on the amount of force you pull on the lever this predict eight the direction of force put on the ball bearing and using the leather you launch them around the pachinko machine with the aim of gameand into a pocket known as the stark checker in the simplest games this would lead to a jackpot and a flood of ball bearings which flow down into your container at the bottom and at the end of the game you redeem the ball surprising the more ball bearings you have the bigger the prize and then in the 1980s pachinko machines became electronic gaming devices and things garlic more colorful a lot more noisy a lot more chaotic pachinko is since morphed into a slightly more complex game the aim of landing balls into the star chapter remains however doing so opens up more holes to aim for to increase the jackpot and triggering some rather crazy-looking minigames which are more reminiscent of arcade machine there's more to pachinko than just a flood of ball bearings and a dizzying array of colors it is by far Japan's biggest gambling market gambling in Japan is technically bang however pachinko parlors have found a way around it at the end of a game you receive a coupon or ticket depending on the size of your winnings you can then leave the pachinko parlor and head around the back of the building or down a nearby street to a neighbor encounter where you're able to redeem the ticket for a cash reward and because it's an asset for a building the gambling laws they're easily circumnavigated I remember the first time I heard about this loophole on how comical ridiculous it sounded but when you're talking about a market worth 200 billion dollars or four percent of Japan's GDP well it's a lot of government tax revenue live in pachinko parlors are typically difficult to form with the sort of strict policies you'd find in a casino but we've been given access to film inside the chinko cafe in Takayama and get food in the heart of the Japanese Alps with a colorful noisy machines stand in contrast to the town's traditional Edo era streets [Music] the ebiz cafe is part of a growing movement to throw off the image of pachinko being a gamble as spore here you can't redeem your winnings for money but you can turn them into prizes like food sweets toys or local soccer they're keen to get the message out that the chinko isn't about money it is genuinely a fun exciting fast-paced game and what better way to see it in action than by finding out if not Skeeter pachinko veteran lives up to his reputation of being a pro we're not gambling here today because gambling is wrong mainly because I always lose what we are doing is giving nasty 1,500 reaching ko balls oh and thirty minutes and we gonna see how many balls you can turn this into if you can get 6,000 kögel's if they've minutes we can win the prize takei of is number one sucker okay on the circuit yeah nasty can you do it I can do it yeah do you have balls I've gone absolutely go win me some suck it yeah I mean us [Music] [Applause] [Music] would Cygnus key player can understand how the game can be addictive with the intermittent waves of ball bearings pouring down into the players inventory even if I understand the basics of pachinko are be lying if I said I completely understood what's going on so now skis distally first machined he seems to win it quite a few pokeballs I don't really know how we did it I'm not sure even he knows but there seems to be some kind of technique why do you think the chinko so popular in Japan what is it about Japanese culture pachinko that go hand in hand the only gene or manga gonna look at all the missing of thank you for me pitch another car after Chrissy BG dhoka dhoka media marketer second ketchup or more rj9 you had a dagger kawakunai Walker for the smoker you kill Joe oh come on I played Erica smaller amazement enough for exciting a conjurer ultimately when most people think of between code they think of noisy crowded rooms filled with smoke however to counter that the Avis cafe has a no smoking policy they have a restaurant area where you can sit socialize and eat and drink your winnings and for foreign customers bewildered by how to play as even detailed instructions on how to learn and master pachinko as nasty hits the halfway mark in his quest to win me I mean us some some sake I sit down with kiss kitchen door the manager of the store who reveals perhaps the biggest change to conventional pachinko parlors ijen party for there hey thought that might cheer not Jim party nothing Allah today I am punching for email tsunami say this to you I am cutting pape oka hydrokinetic constipation optic panic acid a napkin at the cemetery for nakka nakka apricot jam guru datta tea Naruto for Jimin or for psycho tradition etymology photography journalist ever more perfect ultimate aim is reported a there are personal matters iike a special token our pen promote the doctors on lemme tell you I saw it I need a totally Tian de Naga crossover do you get burner so without counting out Lansky's winners in two buckets [Music] 3488 over twice the amount started waste 1500 and finished on 3488 mother thank you [Music] circuit time well done that's game we did well we did so well wedding tasting tastes it does taste like victory the taste of team blessing well it turns out pachinko isn't as much of a mindfuck as I expected it to be and that's key lived up to his word of being a glorified pachinko vest room to learn more about Japan's biggest game or to find out where we played you can get all the details in the description box below we'll see you next time quick nap ski dream view be going you've got to get back in there get some good to see you destroy the whole cup of sake I'm done here the concessions of interim kids

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 7,085,228

Rating: 4.8884296 out of 5

Keywords: japan, japanese, pachinko, gaming, arcade, takayama, gifu

Id: -tBy2jemw4s

Length: 11min 7sec (667 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 20 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/IridiumForte]

Suddenly it makes sense why in Pokemon Red/Blue when you win in the casino in order to exchange your prizes you have to leave and go to the building next door to cash your winnings. Even team rocket was scared of the gaming commission

[u/PrcrsturbationNation]

Wait. What’s to stop you from buying the metal balls in a place that costs 1Y/ball and exchanging it for money in a place where it costs 4Y/ball?

[u/pastamaster_29]

These places are a must-see whenever you are in Japan. Especially the larger ones in Tokyo are just pure madness. The noise in there is usually ear-shattering and seeing all those businessmen play is really an interesting experience. Love the Japanese culture and all it‘s unique aspects and lifestyles

[u/SuToRiToFaiTa]

A simple game that ruined Konami.

[u/bmwhite3]

Two things: 1. No wonder Gacha games are so popular in Japan, gambling/testing one's luck is part of their culture. 2. Where can I find a Pachinko machine in the US, cause I'm tired of spending my money on Gacha games.

[u/greennyellowmello]

I still have no idea what’s going on.

[u/1live4downvotes]

Gambling in Asia is weird. For example, in South Korea there are casinos, but Koreans are not allowed to gamble in them. However, tourists are allowed to use them. Also, in Japan they just passed a law allowing casinos, but it put a cap on how many times per week/month one can visit them.

[u/[deleted]]

I love Chris Broad, Natsuki and Ryoy....can’t spell it. I’ve been watching his videos since before I went to Japan. He’s only gotten better at his niche

[u/Mrbrionman]

Ok hold on can we just focus on just how much money this makes? 200 BILLION dollars! 4% of Japan's total GDP. That's fucking insane.