Game on for elderly at video arcades in Japan

[hashiriya1]

I thought this was an interesting article, check it out.

As some of you may know, Japan's birthrate is in steep decline. That means no young people to go to arcades. So arcades are trying to market themselves to the elderly.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20 ... 3000c.html


Cups of tea, leg-warming blankets and spectacles are not the type of thing you'd expect to see at video arcades -- places that have a reputation for luring game-loving youngsters.

But all of these things can be found at the Takenotsuka branch of Adores, which operates 80 video arcades across the country, mostly in the Tokyo metropolitan area. They are part of the company's efforts to accommodate a steady stream of elderly patrons who are showing that arcades are no longer just havens for the young.

At the Takenotsuka arcade in Tokyo's Adachi Ward, 30 people sit in front of game machines. Among them are a husband and wife who were there the day before, a woman with her granddaughter. Most of the visitors are the elderly.

"I come here every weekday," says 69-year-old Kazuo Tanaka, clutching a bucket containing 200 medals he bought for 1,000 yen. "I go home before 4 p.m. when Ooka Echizen starts on TV, though." Tanaka plays a horse-racing game at the arcade. He used to bet on real horse races, but decided to turn to video games, which didn't cost as much.

The brightly lit arcade provides hand towels and gloves so the patrons don't get their hands dirty. It even provides free cups of green tea.

"There was once a customer who told us, 'You could at least bring out some tea and cakes,' and we started doing just that this year," says 46-year-old arcade head Masato Hirose. "We've also got blankets to keep people warm and pairs of glasses for older customers."

Figures from the All Nippon Amusement Machine Operators' Union show that the number of video arcades in Japan dropped from 25,044 in fiscal 2004 to 19,213 in fiscal 2009 -- due partly to the spread of mobile phone games and a declining birth rate that has eaten away at the number of young arcade-goers.

"The number of big arcades has fallen, and small- and medium-sized outlets have been forced out of business," a member of the union says. The industry is desperate to shed its image of being "dark, dirty and daunting" and attract a new base of patrons from the baby-boom generation. But many customers are older.

Adores provides special services for elderly people at 40 of its outlets. Its Takenotsuka arcade, which operates a service providing 50 bonus medals to people aged 65 or over, has one regular customer aged 87.

"Some people drop in on their way back from the hospital. Others bring along some bread or a rice ball for lunch," a store representative says.

Between spring and autumn, long lines of customers form outside the store before its 10 a.m. opening. Popular among patrons are coin games in which medals are fed into a slot. If the medal falls into the right place, it lights up a lamp, and when 10 lamps are lit a roulette game begins. Medal payouts can be held for the customer until the next day.

Koichi Shioya, 73, has been a regular customer at the arcade since January this year.

"I first thought of video arcades as a gathering place for delinquents, but I decided to come after hearing there were many elderly customers," he said. "It's fun, the store manager is kind, and I can make friends. It's more enjoyable than shutting myself in at home."

For Shioya, a former corporate man who had few local contacts, the arcade appears to have become a place of social exchange where he can enjoy conversing with people.

But it's not only within the walls of arcades that the elderly have latched onto game machines. At the nursing facility Kaikaya in Yokohama's Minatomirai district, women let out cheers in front of a "rehabilitainment" machine -- designed to help improve people's physical functions as they play.

On one machine the player uses a plastic hammer to whack crocodiles on the head. On another, a player steps on snakes that pop out. There is also a drum game featuring nursery songs.

"A sense of rhythm is a good stimulation," says 83-year-old Michiko Ono. Hisako Hashimoto, an 84-year-old user of the facility, chips in: "I'm going to build up my legs and I'll show people I can walk without a handcart."

"When you laugh, you heart becomes younger," another facility user, 88-year-old Kayoko Akiyama says of the game. Another woman, Yayoi Minomo maintains that the games are her sole source of enjoyment. She doesn't look the 91 years that she is.

Shinichiro Takasugi, 52, of the rehabilitation department at Kyushu University Hospital, says games in which users hit an object that pops out improve reaction times.

"By hitting them, users' reaction time -- the time it takes information that enters a person's eye to be processed into a hand movement -- gets shorter. We see that their balance also improves and their alertness improves," Takasugi says.

It is easy for elderly people to suffer fractures or become bedridden after they take a fall, but if their alertness improves, they can quickly grab a handrail or put their foot out, says Takasugi. He recommends the snake game, which forces people to open their legs and raise their thighs and toes, helping them build the muscles around their shins and waist.

"This is an age for us to promote preventive medicine while people are having fun, rather than just strenuous rehabilitation," Takasugi says.

The nursing facility is actually run by the Namco Bandai group, a major player in the video game industry. The 52-year-old head of Kaikaya, Yoshiaki Kawamura, says that about 10 percent of the 120 people who visit the facility come for the games.

"Some elderly people may feel as if they are being made to go to a nursing facility, but we want to aim to create a place that they themselves want to attend," Kawamura says.

[Opa Opa]

the7k should open an arcade like this.

[CRTGAMER]

Great story! Other countries can learn from this. Arcades are fading, and the tenants at the rest homes are restless to do something.

[J T]

My in-laws are in their 60s and they just bought an X-Box 360 and a Kinect. They aren't exactly elderly, but one of the things that attracted them to the Kinect was seeing an advertisement where there were a bunch of old people in a nursing home/senior center playing the bowling game in Kinect Sports. I had never noticed that before, but it really caught their attention and made them think that this was something low impact and fun that they could do at home. My father-in-law was so excited to have us over and surprise us with his new toy. We all virtua-bowled and had a great time.

I really think video games can be for everyone, it's just a matter of finding the right game for the person.