Dynam pachinko parlor employees practice bowing during customer-care training in Fukaya, north of Tokyo.
© Japan Today
Pachinko parlor politeness
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Dynam pachinko parlor employees practice bowing during customer-care training in Fukaya, north of Tokyo.
© Japan Today
31 Comments
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wildwest
I feel so very sorry for all those involved with pachinko, the customers addicted to gambaling, and most poorly paid employies.
HonestDictator
Yeah, I find this a bit scary as well. Most gambling I've ever done was spending 1-2USD every once in a while to play the multi-state lottery if it was high enough.
Novenachama
Pachinko is actually portrayed as a game in Japan, so that addiction issues are ignored or downplayed and unless pachinko is recognized as a form of gambling, present changes in Japanese legislation will be of limited value in tackling addiction.
SimondB
The noise! The second hand smoke! The crap pay! Why do they do it??
sfjp330
Pachinko is the game from the past. Every year, fewer and fewer people are playing and young people are simply not playing. The payouts are too small to take it seriously.
TheInterstat
Pachinko is all part of the package that needs to die in Japan; Pachinko, sexism, smoking, crystal meth, old men creating the acceptable standards and not allowing the youth to dictate the social climate, etc etc. It is HORRIFIC.
TakahiroDomingo
is there a pachinko app?
nath
Great shot. There must be a pachinko app. You can play pachinko on iPad is you buy a game called Samurai vs Zombie defence. Samurai killing zombies but also has pachinko side game.
onagagamo
These places make me angry.
Droll Quarry
I'm sure the quasi school girl uniforms are an important part of the polite pachinko experience.
ben4short
The number of ethnocentric missionaries of Western culture on this site is truly mind boggling. Pachinko ain't your thing? Fine, stay away, but please stop telling the Japanese what you happen to think is best for them.
Yubaru
Me thinks you know little of the business to think that these folks are "poorly" paid. While the environment sucks big time, someone who is untrained or uneducated can make a fairly decent living working at a pachinko parlor, depending of course on it's location.
Down here in Okinawa the average starting pay for someone working at one of these halls is around 150,000 per month.
I feel more sorry for poorly educated people.
LBW2010
深谷?That is DEEP Saitama. Living there, plus working at a pachinko parlor? Tough luck.
senseiman
The one in the photo is actually more depressing looking that most pachinko parlors, which at least have a bit of color. This looks like it is located in a generic high school cafeteria converted to hold pachinko machines.
turbotsat
Wouldn't it be darkened with garish colored spot lighting during operation? They don't have it bright and white just for the photo op?
Wolfpack
I tried pachinko a few times. It's seriously boring. I don't know how they stay in business without Las Vegas style cocktail waitresses.
borscht
Wolfpack,
Spend a couple of hours with your hand in the right place and you can earn a few thousand yen. Plus, there are people on this island nation that make quite a bit of money playing pachinko. I'm talking over 500,000 yen a month. That's how they stay in business.
Wolfpack
Amazing! And the employees bow nicely as they head to the bank.
sighclops
One of the biggest blights on Japanese society...
oldman_13
A great example of Japanese customer service, everything from fast food to 7/11 to now pachinko parlors. The world could learn quite a few things from the Japanese.
Schopenhauer
Japan tried several times in the past to export Japan's popular gamble "pachinko" to America and other countries in vain. Please tell me why the pachiko cannot attract Americans and others.
Disillusioned
Yeah, well, at least they are polite about ripping you off!
The answer is quite simple! Gambling is illegal in Japan. At many pachinko parlors there are signs warning foreigners not to go inside. I went into one for a look many years ago and was asked to leave. However, I think the main reason that most westerners are not into pachinko is common sense. Many Asian foreigners are just as addicted to it as the locals are.
Yubaru
Now to pachinko parlors? You have the order wrong, fast food and 7/11 came along well after pachinko, and the world could learn a thing or two about service from Japan, but they sure the heck would be better off not having pachinko that's for sure.
Kazumichi
TAX ON PACHINKO.
That's all I wanna say.
Carcharodon
and 20,000 lumens of retina scorching fluorescent tube lighting...... if I never enter a Pachinko parlour, it will be too soon
irishosaru
It's quite depressing to be passing a pachinko parlour around 8.50am and see guys already queueing up for the place to open.
Riffraff
Pachinko is not gambling. If it were the police would shut them down. I have never been told to leave a PP in the many long years I have been here, you must have smelled bad or had bad breath. I only go to PPs once or twice a year on my own and then just to remind myself how boring it is. I do get drug into visiting occasionally by a visiting relative, so it adds up to about 2-5 excursions per year. The only thing I ever win are some pens, gum or erasers, and I usually spend about 5 thousand yen. I don't have much use for these items so i sell them to a small stand that is located nearby. I do have a neighbor that leaves his house EVERY dad around 3 PM on his scooter, rain or shine and works a list of favorite PPs until about 11 PM. He said it pays the bills and beats working.
Yubaru
Bwahaaaa....roflmao! EXACTLY, you trade the "balls" in for some trinkets and then "sell" them at some little booth around the corner and if you are lucky get your "invesment" plus @ back.
Every couple of months or so when I am bored and don't feel like doing the lawn work around the house I hit a pachinko parlor in the neighborhood and play "ichi-pachi" or 1 yen pachinko. Nothing wrong with it and like you said and with which I agree:
I've been playing on and off for well over 25 years and have NEVER been asked or told to leave. And where I play I am the ONLY foreigner that has ever walked into the place and played there. I've won, and I've lost, the thing is to keep both in perspective and never use more than you are willing to lose.
I go in with typically 10,000 yen, when it's gone so am I. If I break even, it's been a great day. If I lose, it's still been a great day.....if I win, I drink "better" beer that night.
SenseNotSoCommon
It's not gambling, but you can earn a living?
Yubaru
Technically, to Japanese law, it is not gambling. That is because there is no direct exchange of money for money.
It's a huge grey area, and in reality YES, it IS gambling, of which some forms are allowed in Japan, like horse racing, bike racing (human and motor-powered), and boat racing. Casino gambling is currently illegal but may very well soon be legalized.
Very few people, in terms of the numbers of people that actually DO play pachinko, can make a living off of it.
In all the years I've been here I have NEVER heard of anyone building a house by playing pachinko, but plenty who have lost theirs, and more, because of how much they lost.