Pachinko is a Japanese game that uses steel balls which are dropped down a playfield. It allows people to win prizes but does not fall under national gambling laws. We discuss how this pastime is so popular in the article below.
If you watch Japanese movies, and animation or read books, you may have come across Pachinko. Many in the West will have seen the word in the famous novel or with its television adaptation.
Yet the game itself is an anomaly: A Gambling game played in parlors, in a country where gambling is illegal. So how does Pachinko manage to stay so popular and remain embedded in Japanese culture? We discuss it in the article below.
What is Pachinko?
Pachinko is a game woven into the popular culture of Japan. In many ways, it represents the national character more than any flag: Fun-loving, and exhilarating entertainment all tucked away by a wall of manners, etiquette and respectability. At its core, Pachinko is a fun and simple game. A mix of pinball and slots, it is quite a hands-off pursuit in which the player does very little to determine the outcome. However, it is the method by which players have to claim their winnings that makes pachinko so unique.
The machine used for pachinko is upright, much like an arcade machine. Players purchase balls from the parlor using a pre-paid card or debit payment. Balls are tipped into the top of the machine, and these steel balls fall down, hitting pegs. They then either vanish from play or fall into special holes. The holes activate a bonus game, in which you can win new sets of steel balls. It is these balls that can allow you to win a prize.
As gambling for cash is illegal in the country, Pachinko has developed itself inside a legal loophole of sorts. The balls that are won can’t be exchanged for money on the premises. It is also illegal to take them out of the building or to other parlours. Thus, players change their steel balls into special prize tokens. These prize tokens can then be taken to a vendor who is elsewhere, though often has links to the parlour. They will cash in the tokens, pay the winner, and then sell the tokens back to the parlour with a small commission added.
Pachinko in Popular Culture
Most people in Europe and the US who did not know about the game will have probably come across Pachinko through the book and later television adaptation. Pachinko is the title of a novel by Min Jin Lee. The story follows four generations of a Korean family and the aftermath of their mother's decision to cut out her baby's father and start a new life in Japan. It is a tale of identity and finding success. The book was a New York Times bestseller, becoming a National Book Award finalist and selling over a million copies.
Inevitably, it was not long before a story as good as this made it to the screen. An American television drama, it keeps to its original historical Korean adaptation. It does a wonderful job of encapsulating the discrimination faced by Korean immigrants in Japan at that time. Created by Soo Hugh, she had also worked on shows such as AMC’s The Terror.
You really won't find the game outside of Japan. To play it, you must visit the country and enter one of its arcade-like parlors to take part. Make sure you have identification, and understand that you will need more than a few hundred yen if you want to win. Manage your bankroll and enjoy your game of pachinko.
