The intriguingly unique arcade market in Japan has witnessed tough times, but its tenacity and ability to innovate will still serve its faithful devotees well, reckons Dan Snook.
THERE are a plethora of articles and features written about the Japanese arcade industry, many lamenting the dwindling numbers since coin-op’s heyday and some even predicting its complete extinction. The shrinking numbers have been there for all to see, but extinction? I’m calling that right out. It’s never going to happen.
Geemu Sentaas (game centres) have been as much as part of Japanese society since the post-war era as anything else that outsiders would remotely associate with the fascinating far-east nation (insert generic mentions of sushi, kimonos, samurais, etc, here). The earliest iterations sprang up on department store rooftops in the 1960s but it wasn’t until 1978 and the explosion of Invader Houses following the introduction of Taito’s iconic Space Invaders that game centres, as most of us remember them, ingrained themselves into Japanese culture.
