Japan: pachinko shops open despite lockdown

Okura Holdings tells Hong Kong stock exchange it intends to keep its pachinko parlours open despite Covid-19 state of emergency in Japan.

Japan.- Some small pachinko firms have ignored the government’s mandated closure of all businesses after a state of emergency was declared last week due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Okura Holdings reported to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, “the group intends to continue operating all of its pachinko halls across Japan, including the five pachinko halls in the areas under the state of emergency.”

“Despite the ongoing operation of the group’s pachinko halls, the directors of the company expect that the customer traffic of these five pachinko halls may significantly decline, resulting in an adverse impact on the group’s revenue and profit before income tax,” Okura explained.

Unlike Okura Holdings, Dynam and Maruhan, the largest pachinko parlour operators in the country, have shut their shops in seven prefectures in line with government advice.