 has spread from its origins in the United States to become the most utilized form of treatment for problem gamblers in 55 countries. Yet there is little known about how different cultures have modified the program or about how those changes may have contributed to its effectiveness.
This paper reviews the current status of gambling in Japan, and addresses problem gambling among Japanese workers from a three-fold social perspective. First, the paper examines a sense of alienation experienced by workers caught up in economic and structural changes in the workplace. Many choose gambling as an escape method of coping. Second, the paper examines the role of cultural characteristics, such as the avoidance of confrontation, concerns about public exposure, and the threat of social exclusion, which affect not only gamblers but also their families. Third, the paper examines the sense of acceptance that gamblers and family members regain through participation in GA and Gam Anon.
In order to present an overview of gamblers in Japan, the paper uses data from the Leisure White Paper (Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development [JPC-SED], 2008) and the Survey of Pachinko Participation (Entertainment Business Institute, 2008). Data on problem gamblers were obtained from the Gamblers Anonymous (GA) Membership Survey (GA Japan Information Center [GA JIC], 2009; Takiguchi, 2009) and the Report of Oneday Port, No.3 (2007), a gambling-specific residential treatment center in Yokohama.
The paper also draws upon the first author's experience as a non-gambler observer at GA and Gam Anon meetings and conferences in nine cities in western Japan. The author attended the first GA meeting in Osaka in 1994. She attended weekly GA meetings in both Osaka and Kyoto (where GA started in 2000) until 2003, when she began holding monthly educational classes for family members. Since 2004 she has regularly attended regional GA and Gam Anon conferences, where she has been an invited speaker and has provided educational classes for family members. Respect for the confidentiality of the participants applies to the author's educational classes as well as the GA and Gam Anon meetings and conferences. Both GA and Gam Anon have policies against note taking or any mechanical recording at meetings and conferences. It is also not permitted for a guest or non-member to conduct systematic interviews or hand out questionnaires. The author adhered to the policy, but was afterwards able to meet informally with core participants to discuss some of the activities and to get to know them better. Personal stories of gamblers and their family members that appear in this paper are used either by permission of the individual or only after personal characteristics were sufficiently deleted to maintain anonymity.
The policies of the Japanese government are contradictory and inconsistent concerning gambling. Gambling is prohibited by the Japanese Penal Code (2007, Articles 185, 186), which states: 'a person who gambles shall be punished by a fine of not more than 500,000 yen,' and 'a person who gambles habitually shall be punished by imprisonment with labor for not more than three years.' However, the law contains a loophole, as it also states: 'this shall not apply when the bet of a thing is made only for momentary amusement.' There are important exceptions in the form of state-regulated sports tracks (national and provincial horse racing, bicycle, motorboat, and motorcycle racing), 'Toto' (wagering on professional soccer), and a state-run lottery (Tanioka, 1997; Thompson, 2006). These public forms of gambling (Table 1) are regulated by the Racing Laws, the Law Concerning the Promotion of Sports Tickets (Toto), and the Law of Tickets with Prizes (lottery). The state run forms of gambling are allowed to operate because they promote 'the public good': they promote industry and sports and raise funds for local governments (Japan Lottery Association, 2009; JKA, 2009a, 2009b; Kyōtei Official Web, 2009; National Agency for the Advancement of Sports and Health, 2009; Japan Association for International Horse Racing, 2009; National Association of Racing, 2009).
Table 1: Public Forms of Gambling in Japan.
The lottery ranks as the sixth most popular form of leisure activity, after restaurants, domestic trips, driving, karaoke, and watching videos at home. Thirty-eight percent of the population over the age of fifteen purchased lottery tickets, and annual spending per player was US$200 (at Yen100 = US$1). The second most popular form of gambling was national horse racing: 6.9 per cent of the population (legal age 20+), and annual spending per player was $717. Other forms of public gambling attracted fewer Japanese: participation rates and spending per player were 1.0 per cent and $183 for provincial horse racing; 0.7 per cent and $690 for bicycle racing; 1.1 per cent and $698 for motorboat racing; 0.3 per cent and $161 for motorcycle racing; and 4.2 per cent and $98 for Toto (JPC-SED, 2008). Participation rates and annual spending per player are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: Gambling in Japan - Participation rates and per-player spending in 2007.
Source: Adapted from Leisure White Paper (2008); Toto: Sales of nineteenth fiscal year of Heisei-era.
The above data might lead one to conclude that excess gambling is not a major problem in Japan. However, the most significant form of gambling, the electronic gaming machines (EGMs), which in Japan consist of pachinko and pachislot, are considered games for amusement and are therefore not regulated by any gambling law. This is justified by having players win prizes, which can only be redeemed for cash outside of the pachinko parlor.
Most impressive about these games is their ubiquity in Japan, in terms of the sheer number of machines, the amount of time and money spent on them, and the revenues they generate. Japan has by far the largest number of gaming machines in the world. In 2006, there were 4.9 million pachinko and pachislot machines in the country, which equates to one machine for every 26 people (TNS, 2006; see also Christiansen, 2007). By way of comparison, the United States has the largest number of machines outside of Japan, a total of 740,475 gaming machines in 2006, or one machine for every 404 people (TNS, 2006). Pachinko (including pachislot) is a huge US$230 billion industry (JPC-SED, 2008). Annual revenue dwarfs that of the Japanese automobile industry (Kelly, 2007). Japanese spend as much playing pachinko as they do on health care, and borrowing money to play is thought to account for almost half of consumer debt (Economist, 2006).
The actual percentage of Japanese playing these games has declined, from 25 per cent of the population in 1995-1997 to 14.5 per cent in 2005-07 (JPC-SED, 2008). However, during that same period, average annual per player spending increased while household income declined (JPC-SED, 2008). Brooks et al. (2008) observed that, despite the decline in popularity from 29.9 million players in 1989 to 17.1 million in 2005, revenue from the games has risen from 15.3 trillion yen in 1989 to 28.7 trillion yen in 2005. They note that this occurred during a period of flat inflation. How does one account for the fact that the number of people playing has decreased by nearly 11 million, but the revenue from pachinko has nearly doubled?
According to a recent survey, pachinko's declining popularity is partly due to the high cost of playing (Entertainment Business Institute, 2008). Another factor may be that tightened regulation of the consumer finance industry has made it more difficult for players to obtain money for gambling. It is also possible that pachinko players have discovered another form of gambling: the online casino. At present, no reliable data exist on Internet gambling, although there are anecdotal stories and reports of people winning large sums of money (e.g. Asahi Shimbun [Asashi Newspaper] February 5, 2005, as cited in Sugawara, 2005).
More pertinent to our topic is the implication that a smaller number of players is accounting for a larger amount of pachinko revenue. It would be extremely important to know what percentage of those who play regularly are problem gamblers, and the extent to which the pachinko industry's profits are dependent on them. Players can be seen lining up in front of every one of Japan's pachinko parlors, waiting for the 10 A.M. opening so they can race to claim their favorite machine (Kelly, 2007; Thompson et al., 2005). Some of these same players may be seen loitering at closing time, trying to see how machines are being adjusted, to determine which will offer more favorable odds.
Pachinko players are predominantly men between the ages of 20 and 59 (Kelly, 2007; Manzenreiter, 1998). Despite the loud, electronic sounds that are so overwhelming to someone entering a pachinko parlor for the first time, the experience of the players is a solitary one. Each is transfixed by the machine in front of him, alone in a pursuit from which all distractions, including those of reality, have been excluded (Iwasaki, 1998; Hahakigi, 2004).
Recent structural changes in the work environment have driven many workers into a precarious state. In the early 1990s, Japan's economic bubble collapsed and a sweeping crash of stock and property prices caused a decade of economic depression. To revitalize the economy and respond to globalization, both the government and Japanese industry adopted 'neo-liberal'