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March 6, 2021
TOKYO (AFP) – Evenings are normally the busiest time at Mikado, a retro gaming arcade in Tokyo, but these days the shutters come down early, leaving
Street Fighter fans out in the cold. Bright, noisy arcades are still a neighbourhood fixture in Japan, but they have been disappearing as business is hit by virus-curtailed opening hours.
“This is when the place usually starts to fill up,” lamented Yasushi Fukamachi, a manager at Mikado, whose 250 vintage machines attract nocturnal students and office workers who have just clocked off.
It is approaching 8pm and a few dozen gamers wearing face masks are fighting it out on joystick classics, eking out their final minutes of fun before being shooed out.
The number of such facilities plunged from 22,000 in 1989 to just 4,000 in 2019, and a number of well-known locations in Tokyo have shut for good since late last year.
Saturday, 13 Feb 2021 09:36 AM MYT
Several arcades went bust following Japan s first state of emergency last year, which saw most of them close completely for two months, and those that survived are now struggling. ― AFP pic via ETX Studio
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TOKYO, Feb 13 ― Evenings are normally the busiest time at Mikado, a retro gaming arcade in Tokyo, but these days the shutters come down early, leaving
Street
Fighter fans out in the cold.
Bright, noisy arcades are still a neighbourhood fixture in Japan, but they have been disappearing as business is hit by virus-curtailed opening hours.
Evenings are normally the busiest time at Mikado, a retro gaming arcade in Tokyo, but these days the shutters come down early, leaving "Street Fighter" fans out in the cold. Every evening, Mikado goes live to 80,000 YouTube followers, streaming video-game matches as a way to reach gamers stuck at home and earn advertising money.