Leisure Market Falls to Lowest Point in 16 Years
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 Posted: 08:57 PM JST
For the first time since 1990 the market size of the leisure-related industry has fallen below the 80 trillion yen mark. Last year it fell fell by 1.6 percent to 78.921 trillion yen according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development
The drop was largely attributable to the downsizing of the gambling market. The pachinko market shrank by 4.5 percent from the previous year to 27.455 trillion yen due to new restrictions on the installment of pachinko machine models in high demand. The market for the Japan Racing Association, i.e., horse racing declined by 2.5 percent from the previous year to 2.823 trillion yen.
The market size of other industries leveled off in general. However, the markets for games and fitness clubs grew, respectively, by 36.8 percent and a record 6.2 percent, the latter reaching 427 billion yen.
What is especially interesting about this White Paper, though, is that it points to a huge shift in how young people entertain themselves. It looks like the Japanese leisure industry will have to learn a lot of new tricks over the coming years and that interesting opportunities for completely new industries will open up.
US$=117yen (August 15, 2007)
Keywords: national news
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