ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the analysis of game centres and other forms of Japanese urban amusement establishments must be grounded in specific timeframes and specific sociocultural realities. It first tackles the phenomenon of the game centre as an imaginary canvas onto which the West frequently projects its fears and fascination about human-machine interactions in associating them with trance-like behaviour, disorientation, and competitive behaviour. In doing so, it also articulates a techno-Orientalist discourse that associates the Asian subject with these practices, which contributes to its Othering through its relation to technology.
The chapter then traces a short history of the development of amusement spaces in Japan from the end of the Meiji era to the mid-1970s. It focuses on significant events in conjunction with their socioeconomic contexts: the first rooftop amusement parks, the bars and cabarets intended for American military personnel, electromechanical game arcades, and medal game parlours. These case studies demonstrate that the forms and roles of amusement space in Japan are not static, but are the results of complex negotiation and compromise between technological innovations, socioeconomic situations, and dominant ideologies.
