Takarakuji is a public lottery with money as its prize. It resembles the lottery or numbers games in other countries. Takarakuji tickets are issued by local self-governing bodies which take the proceeds as a source of revenue.
The practice began in the Edo Period (1603-1867) as a lottery sold to provide for reconstruction and repair of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. The first takarakuji ticket was sold for \10 in 1945 by the government. The first prize money was \100,000 and other prizes were items like cloth and cigarettes. In those poverty-stricken times, it ignited an explosive popularity.
Nowadays, the top prize reaches as much as \100,000,000. Adding to that, the prize money is exempt from income tax, so that its popularity is as high as that tickets are sold on a reservation basis.
The kara of karaoke means "empty" and oke means "orchestra." That is, it means an orchestra without vocals. When karaoke equipment was first sold in the mid-1970s, it was set up in taverns and bars; a karaoke boom ensued, spreading as popular entertainment for everybody. Singing favorite songs along with the taped karaoke accompaniment releases stress and enlivens the atmosphere; it has become a necessity for both social and personal associations. In recent years, karaoke has been exported to China and other Asian countries and even to the United States and Europe. It enjoys high popularity everywhere.
Current children's games occur indoors more than outdoors, and the representative of them are terebi-gemu. Overseas, especially in the United States, terebi-gemu are so popular that the name of one maker, Nintendo, is synonymous with video games. It is a kind of computer games applying electronic technology; its forerunner was "Space Invaders," a computer game, whose popularity has swept Japan from 1978 to 1979. The contents of games have now become diversified, using sports and various kinds of adventures for their set-ups. Long lines have formed prior to the sale of the most popular "Doragon Quest" series of games, which have become a social boom. However, there are indications that excessive use causes reduced eyesight and epilepsy.
These are places of amusement which appeared around 1969 with influence from the culture of American casinos and pinball machines. There are slot machines too, but most of the games are based on computer-generated images. The "Space Invaders" game has made an explosive hit, and now sophisticated machines with which one can experience "virtual reality" are popular. As places to hang around for young people in their teens and twenties, gemu-senta are mostly found in amusement districts.
These are much in evidence in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, but entrance is prohibited for those under eighteen. They have become the sources of transmitting new waves of music, dance, and fashion, especially the disuko in Tokyo are said to be on the cutting edge of the new waves. Young people, dressed up in showy fashions, enjoy dancing to the music in their own ways. Recently, CDs sold with tickets to popular disuko attached have caught people's attention.
Pachinko is said to be an improvement on the "Corinth Game" which was brought from the United States around 1920. It has become a diversion for many people, but is prohibited to play for those under eighteen. The game involves launching steel balls with a spring flipper and, if they go into the several holes on the game board, 10 or more balls come out. In the past, the balls were flipped manually using the flipper, but now that is substituted by manipulating a handle which works electronically to flip the balls. Accumulated balls can be exchanged for various prizes such as cigarettes or sweets.
Mah-jong is a game brought to Japan in the Meiji Period (1968-1912) from China by way of the United States. Four players compete for points, using 136 square pieces of tile (pai). It was originally a game for the nobility and the wealthy, but after the Second World War it spread to the common people. It has often played in friendly gatherings of university students or businessmen, but it is gradually going out of fashion.
This is a traditional Japanese game which came to Japan from China together with the game of go in the eighth century, and became popular after distinctive improvement. It is quite similar to chess, but with the difference that a player can re-use as his own the pieces taken from the opponent. Characters indicating rank and role, such as king or shogun, are written on the pieces, which are made of wood carved in an irregular pentagonal shape. In all, there are eight different ranks.
Two opponents move their pieces on the shogi board which has 81 squares. Each player has 20 pieces , lined up at the beginning in fixed positions. They move their pieces by turns and the first one to corner the opponent's king wins. A national championship for master players is held every year.
Igo, a representative Japanese indoor game, was introduced from China in the eighth century. At first it was a game for the nobility, but from about the thirteenth century on it spread to the masses. This game is played by two persons using a square go board with a grid, which has 361 intersecting points called me(eyes). The players alternately play their go stones--one using black, the other white--on the me. One can take the opponent's stones by surrounding them with his own; the one who takes the most stones wins.
A skilled player uses the white stones, and the player with black stones is given priority to start the game. There is a rule establishing that some black stones must be placed on the go board in advance, to accommodate the relative differences in the players' ability. Thus, even players of different ability can have even matches.
In Japan manga have become a part of mass culture. Large numbers of manga magazines are being published, aimed at various age brackets; boys, girls, white collar businessmen, young female office workers (known as OL--"office ladies"), and others. It is not unusual to see white collar businessmen in suits reading manga magazines in trains. However, there are also works that go beyond simple entertainment. Recently, books with easy-to-understand manga explanations of economics, history, and so on have been published and show a favorable demand.