{"id":17370,"date":"2021-04-29T14:41:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T14:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=17370"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:57:33","slug":"japan-pachinko-parlours-reject-government-lockdown-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-pachinko-parlours-reject-government-lockdown-request","title":{"rendered":"Japan: Pachinko parlours reject government lockdown request"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pachinko parlours have been asked to close due to a fourth wave of Covid-19 cases in Japan, but it seems the industry is not willing to close shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan.- While Japan is facing a new state of emergency as Covid-19 cases continue to rise,\u00a0pachinko parlours appear to be rejecting a request from the government to close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Several kinds of businesses have been asked to close their doors until May 11<\/strong>\u00a0in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19 cases, including\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-the-number-of-pachinko-parlours-continues-to-fall\">pachinko parlours<\/a>, which were already\u00a0<strong>facing economic difficulties.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pachinko buisiness appear to have decided not to accept the request and to continue operating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to local media, <strong>pachinko associations had previously requested an exception to continue working\u00a0<\/strong>but the government denied the request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Tokyo, authorities also asked smaller businesses, including\u00a0<strong>pachinko parlours<\/strong>\u00a0to close and turn off neon signs after 8pm to discourage people from going out at night. As for now, it seems <strong>the only rule the pachinko businesses have decided to comply with<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, the number of\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-sees-7-drop-in-number-of-pachinko-halls\">active pachinko halls<\/a>\u00a0fell by 584 to 8,302, a 7 per cent decrease year-on-year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pachinko parlours have been asked to close due to a fourth wave of Covid-19 cases in Japan, but it seems the industry is not willing to close shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Japan's pachinko parlours are largely defying government requests to close amidst a fourth wave of COVID-19, despite facing existing economic difficulties. This non-compliance follows a denied request for an exception, with businesses only adhering to requests to dim neon signs after 8 PM, highlighting significant regulatory friction and operational challenges within the sector.","focusai_entities":"pachinko associations, government","focusai_location":"Japan, Tokyo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Impact","query":"What specific enforcement actions are Japanese authorities prepared to take against non-compliant pachinko parlours, and what are the potential long-term implications for their B2C licensing and operational continuity?"},{"label":"Sector Economic Viability","query":"How will the ongoing operational defiance and the broader economic pressures from COVID-19 impact the GGR and NGR of the Japanese pachinko sector, and what M&A opportunities or consolidation trends might emerge from this instability?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,158,23876],"tags":[23909],"class_list":["post-17370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","category-social-news","tag-slot-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17392,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17370\/revisions\/17392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}