Every year in Japan, gambling parents leave their children in the car or home alone while they go to play pachinko, a modified pinball game. A few of the children die.
On yet another business trip, Fred and I went out for yet another drink. I wondered aloud concerning pachinko fatality statistics. I was referring to the small children who suffered and died because of their parents' gambling problems, not the gamblers who played pachinko. Fred gave a mournful sigh. Every year some of the babies and small children left in cars parked in parking lots with the engine running and the air conditioning on die from the summer heat. The car engine stops, the air conditioning stops, temperatures in the car rise to over 100, and the heat kills the children. The news of fatal accidents is covered in the media almost every year, when some poor excuse for a parent leaves children alone to go and gamble. Sometimes the children are left alone at home and die in fires and sometimes it is something else.
Fred said that he had not seen any statistics but that it was not that many, especially compared to the hundreds of thousands who died from smoking and drinking and the tens of thousands who died in car accidents. I said that was true, but it just defies reason to leave your children like that. Fred agreed, but pointed out that gambling is an addiction.
Pachinko started out as a pinball game in the United States but never became popular. Introduced to Japan, the game was modified and spread like wildfire. Basically, the idea is to shoot little balls into the right places and get more little balls. One reason that pachinko spread so quickly in Japan is that it is gambling. Money is not given out at pachinko parlors, just prizes. Near almost every pachinko parlor, however, is someplace where you can convert your pachinko winnings to cash. Research has shown that when gambling is illegal, many people gamble and approximately 1% of the population have a serious gambling problem. When gambling becomes legal, more people gamble, and the number of people with serious gambling problems doubles.
Parents in Japan who become addicted to the game can't control themselves and some children pay the price with their lives.
Fred asked me to think of a modern country without problems. I could not. Japan may have problems with pachinko fatalities, deaths from overwork and more. Still, these problems pale when compared with gun deaths and drug problems in America.
I asked him if he had ever played pachinko. Fred said he had never played pachinko and asked me if I had. Remembering my one and only foray into a pachinko parlor, I nodded my head and said I tried it once.
I remembered going into a dark smoke-filled room where grim-faced men sat in dark clothes chain smoking and shooting balls into machines. The image was sadder than blank-faced senior citizens feeding slot machines in Reno. The room was full of noise of pachinko machines and incredibly loud music. I stepped up to a machine to buy some balls, popped 100 yen in, and some balls came out. Scooping them up in my hand as 100 yen worth of balls was not enough to need a bucket, I stepped to a machine, fed them in and pushed the button again and again and again. They were gone in a minute or two.
I never played again.
Japanese in America and guns: Linguistics and caution
Looking for a Halloween party, Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori went to the wrong home. He rang the bell only to be greeted by a Dirty Harry wannabe with a .44 magnum revolver with a laser sight. Hattori became yet another victim of American gun culture.
Only Japanese can speak Japanese
While many Americans often assume that everybody should be able to speak English if they try, especially for people who have been in America for many years, other views exist in other parts of the world. Japanese and other Asians often assume the opposite - that people from different cultures, especially Caucasians, cannot speak their language and should not be expected to.
Japan: Indian restaurants and Immigration trends
The spread of ethnic restaurants can tell us much about a country and immigration. Looking at Japan, we can see Indian restaurants run by Indians spreading across the country. The Japanese are torn between wanting immigrants to work in Japan and wanting to keep their "homogenous" society. The Indian restaurants may be a hint that Japan will one day be a vibrant and energized multi-ethnic country.
