＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
１．Recent Increase in Pachinko Industry Commercials
Recently, there seems to be an increase in TV commercials and professional golf tournaments provided by the “pachinko industry”.
There was a TV commercial for “SANKYO” featuring Ken Shimura, a pachinko/pachislot manufacturer. I also often see commercials for “MARUHAN,” a pachinko/pachislot hall business.
NOBUTA GROUP Masters GC Tournament” for women’s golf is provided by NOBUTA GROUP, which is mainly engaged in the pachinko/pachislot hall business.
The Heiwa PGM Championship for men’s golf is provided by Heiwa Corporation, which is mainly involved in the pachinko/pachislot products business, and PGM Holdings, a holding company for golf course management companies in Japan.
２．Pachinko is already banned by law in South Korea
In Korea, pachinko was banned by law in 2006. According to a former Korean judge, “80% of criminals were frequent pachinko parlor goers,” which was the primary reason for the ban.
There were also many cases involving pachinko parlors. Customers who lost a lot of money playing pachinko set fire to game parlors with gasoline, smashed pachinko tables, and so on.
Until the ban, there were 15,000 pachinko parlors in Korea, more than convenience stores, and they were open all night long. The market was worth 3.65 trillion yen.
However, as a result of the banning of pachinko, consumption is said to be growing.
３．Concerns about gambling addiction and outflow of funds to North Korea
There are currently about 15,000 pachinko parlors in Japan, with a market size of 30 trillion yen. Seventy percent of pachinko parlor operators are South Koreans or Koreans residing in Japan, and it appears that some of the funds are flowing to North Korea.
In 1993, Foreign Minister Yoshifumi Muto stated in the Diet that “hundreds of billions of yen of pachinko money is going to North Korea,” and that it was being used to “fund North Korea’s missile development.
There have been a number of tragic incidents, such as a case in which parents who had become addicted to pachinko/slot gambling left their young child with severe burns and went to a pachinko parlor for three days, or a housewife left her toddler in the car while she was absorbed in pachinko, causing the child to die from heat stroke.
According to the “Results of a Survey on Gambling Addiction” released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s research group in August 2014, there were 5.36 million people suspected of having addiction, 4.8% of all adults (8.7% among men), and 80% of them were “pachinko and slot machine” addicts.
In addition to personal losses in the form of unhappiness of the “gambler” and his or her family, there will be considerable economic losses to local governments, such as increased welfare payments due to an increase in the number of people losing their jobs, and increased subsidies to single mothers and their children due to divorce.
With such a social problem of “gambling addiction” and the “North Korea problem,” I think it is time for Japan to consider banning pachinko by law.
However, the fact that the media does not cover this “pachinko industry” issue at all may be evidence that the pachinko industry is now a huge presence that cannot be ignored as a sponsor of television and other media.
The fact that the National Police Agency is the regulatory agency for this industry, which makes it a “recipient of reemployment of police alumni,” and the LDP’s “Diet Members League” that supports the pachinko industry may also be obstacles to banning pachinko.
If opposition party lawmakers are crying “opposition to opening casinos in IRs” on the grounds of spreading gambling addiction and worsening public safety, I think it would be in their best interest to strongly request the government to “ban pachinko” before they do so…
Also, public gambling (horse racing, bicycle racing, boat racing, and auto racing), which is allowed by law by the government, is also “gambling,” and from the perspective of preventing “gambling addiction,” it is no different from pachinko.
４．Who will be the supervisory authority for IR “casinos”?
Currently, the supervising authorities for public gambling are the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for “horse racing,” the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for “bicycle racing” and “auto racing,” and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for “boat racing.
Pachinko, which is regulated by the National Police Agency, is in a “gray zone” because, although it is technically “non-convertible,” in reality it is converted into cash.
If the regulatory authority for legal “casinos” in IR becomes a government agency other than the National Police Agency, there may be a “movement to ban pachinko by law”. However, it is not clear whether this is a “turf war” between regulatory authorities or a “measure against gambling addiction” to truly restore the healthy lives of the people.
If this “move to ban pachinko by law” is a strategy to shift customers away from pachinko and toward legal casinos, I cannot say I am stunned.
パチンコ利権 瀕死の業界に未来はあるのか？ [ 宇佐美典也 ]
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