The Overseas Committee of JAMMA, the Japanese trade association, is planning a determined bid to have the details of the so-called Fuei 7 Act amended to permit ticket redemption in Japan.
The association is to work through the Japanese Ministry of Judicial Affairs and with the police authorities which administer the Fuei 7 regulation.
Representing the country's games manufacturers, the association has received a report from its Overseas Committee, under the chairmanship of Norito Jinguji of RS Co., which indicates the opportunities for Japanese manufacturers in the field of ticket redemption games internationally. First, however, the organisation needs to adjust the Japanese domestic laws to permit the use of the games and that is hampered by the Fuei Act, originally designed to govern the pachinko business.
The Overseas Committee sees the Fuei 7 and Fuei 8 Acts as 'old and obsolete' and seeks to have them repealed as they have combined to isolate and hold back the Japanese amusement industry. The pachinko regulations were framed over 50 years ago to handle the merchandise prize redemption operation of the game, which had been firmly established by Korean companies. At one stage in the 1970s, pachinko revenues were around US$30bn.
When the Overseas Committee met on October 21 in Tokyo, Jinguji appraised members of the Japanese industry's current standing in the global amusement business and he illustrated his points with pictures taken at the recent China International Games and Amusement Fair in which his own company took part. Jinguji made the point that Japanese manufacturers were falling behind in an important games sector through the inadequacies of its own regulations.
The committee resolved to press its association leaders to seek a revision in the country's laws and seek to revive Japan's amusement industry through the introduction of ticket redemption games.
