| Japan's shrinking pachinko industry may get a new lease on life thanks to a surprising demographic: The elderly. If you've walked through the bustling streets of Tokyo, you've probably strolled past a pachinko parlor and heard a cacophony of deafening metal balls. But play of the iconic Japanese leisure activity, long associated with semi-legal gambling in Japan, has seen declines as the population shrinks. Now the industry is welcoming a group of new players — with surprising health benefits. Playing the vertical pinball machines can be good for preventing dementia in older people, Kikunori Shinohara, a professor at the Suwa Tokyo University of Science, told me. Older users have even reported sleeping better, while others who were quiet and introverted have been coming out of their shells after playing the game. "I'm getting old myself, but doing activities I like that have benefits are much better than doing tedious therapy," Shinohara said.
Dementia is an umbrella term for the loss of thinking abilities including memory, language and problem-solving and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with everyday life, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Symptoms are progressive, it says, with signs of cognitive impairment — like short-term memory issues and problems remembering appointments — starting slowly and worsening over time. About 6 million Japanese aged 65 and over — that's about 15% of the age group — are projected to have dementia by 2040, the country's health ministry said earlier this year, The Japan Times reported. That's up from 4.4 million in 2022, it said. Now, while pachinko's reputation as a leisure activity has been tainted by associations with gambling, triggering a government crackdown in recent years, it may yet have a resurgence in helping Japan's most populous demographic. In reporting a recent story on this phenomenon, I discovered a growing market for the game catering to seniors. That includes pachinko-machine maker Toyomaru Sangyo's machines, equipped with bigger screens, to others that integrate bike pedals tailored for older bodies. Day Service Las Vegas was a pioneer among senior care centers here when it introduced pinball a decade ago. It's one of about 20,000 facilities in Japan that take in seniors who don't have caretakers during the day. Currently, about 20% of people in its care play pachinko, all of them using fake money to buy tokens. They are required to take hourly breaks for exercise. "I think what matters the most," said the center's CEO, Kaoru Mori, "is that the pachinko brings them joy." —Eru Ishikawa | 
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