The pandemic has hard hit the pachinko industry in Japan.
Japan’s largest pachinko company, Dynam Japan Holdings, issued this statement recently: ”After April 2020, in order to deal with the expansion of the Covid-19, the government of Japan and each prefectural governor requested various business sectors including pachinko hall operators to suspend their business operations. In response to such a request, we were left with no alternative but to temporarily close 436 pachinko halls, about 97 percent of all of our group’s halls.”
The statement continued, “Since June 2020, all of such closed halls have resumed operations. However, the recovery of our operating revenue from July 2020 has stayed at the range from 70 percent to 80 percent of the operating revenue of the preceding financial year.”
In response the company cut the prices of the machines, personnel and other fixed costs. “We intend to change our character by lowering the break-even point through productivity reform and restructuring so that we can continuously secure the stable earnings.”
Although profits were down 92 percent from the year before, the company stayed profitable and didn’t lose money.
But Dynam Japan may be in better shape than most pachinko manufacturers. According to the All Japan Amusement Business Cooperative Association, which represents 8,378 outlets, 47 parlors closed permanently and six new parlors opened in September.
There were 5,700 fewer pachinko machines and 4,800 few pachislot machines operating in the country the same month.
