Commentary

Japan’s amusement scene: new challenges, opportunities

Amusement venues face new pressures from landlords while theme parks continue to expand.

Image: Adobe Stock.

July 31, 2023 by Kevin Williams

The Japanese amusement scene — a bellwether province — has not been immune to the economic turbulence affecting much of the globe.

The island has witnessed the opening of new style venues, while the traditional amusement venue business has seen major upheavals as the industry establishes its revised future.

Much of the Japanese amusement scene is under pressure, as building owners capitalize on high building prices and a need to modernize — leading to popular entertainment venues closing due to landlord pressures.

It was revealed that the Kushikino Golden Bowl in Ichikikushikino City, Kagoshima Prefecture, will close after 51 years of operation. The reason for the closure is regarding the dilapidation of the site and neglect from the building owner — and not unpopularity with the bowling and amusement venue, that sees, on some occasions, five-hour waits for one of the 16 lanes.

While the bowling operation will be shuttering, the facility, which opened in 1972, is forced to close but intends to move its amusement hall to a new site down the road.

Under these pressures, the country's amusement and entertainment market continues to evolve.

Genda goes public

Genda Inc., a name taken from Global Entertainment Network, announced that the new listing of its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Gross Market has been approved. The company is looking to grow its hold on the entertainment hall in both this territory and the international sector.

Japanese amusement also looks to be doubling down on new entertainment venue openings and partnerships, with rumors circulating that some of the larger theme park projects were about to see changes in operation.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, continue to innovate in response to a more tech savvy customer base.

Japan-based meleap, a sports focused entertainment provider, recently presented its Hado self-styled AR "Techno Sport" platform, offering player-versus-player competition in a near e-sport environment. The system has been installed across multiple areas in the West and Asia and has come to define the power of AR competition using pass-through mixed reality headsets.

Taito, for its part, will be installing a new mixed reality attraction called "Dengeki Afromero." These one- and two-player AR experiences have players navigate through the adventure using their AR headsets and were placed on test for a few weeks in June as the company reviewed players' interest in these kinds of experiences.

Active entertainment

Capcom Co. Ltd., the videogame maker, announced the opening of its Crazy BANeT store — described as an "active sports entertainment" venue, in Tokyo — an entertainment space comprising nine zones, such as the "crazy shooting" area using digital clay pigeon shooting, or the "crazy archery" area, again with a projected screen and tracked archery simulator.

The venue also combines a tenth area for smaller children called "Kid Bunette" with the space comprising physical and skill-based activities.

This seems to mark a trend in entertainment installations in the Japanese scene, with Bandai Namco Amusement having also launched its VS Park active entertainment space.

BNA also announced it will soon be opening its Namco Pleha Walk Hamakita Store — the provisional name for the amusement venue within the mall at the Hamakita Ward, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture in China. This marketing is part of moves to grow amusement's reach into this important territory.

Rumors circulated during June that Walt Disney was looking to continue its extensive restructuring by selling off some properties. One division mentioned was LucasFilms, while sources indicated that investigation had been carried out towards the operation of Walt Disney's China parks, with Hong Kong Disney being mentioned. If this would be a Disneyland Japan style deal, or a complete separation, are pure speculation at this point.

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by KWP and its director, Kevin Williams, the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news service covering the immersive frontier and beyond.)

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About Kevin Williams

Along with advisory positions with other entrants into the market he is founder and publisher of the Stinger Report, “a-must-read” e-zine for those working or investing in the amusement, attractions and entertainment industry. He is a prolific writer and provides regular news columns for main trade publications. He also travels the globe as a keynote speaker, moderator and panelist at numerous industry conferences and events. Author of “The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities,” the only book on this aspect of the market, with the second edition scheduled for a 2023 release.

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