The fabulous Asian nation has a history strongly linked to video games and technology, always aiming to set trends and stay at the forefront of these industries. However, the Japanese gaming public had been reluctant to embrace eSports until recently, which made Japan a world power almost instantly.
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japan and video games
As a living element of Japanese popular culture, the history of video games in Japan is linked to two of the largest companies in this context: Nintendo and Sony. However, the focus of these giants has been on the production of consoles and the creation of content for them, sidelining eSports and viewing video games more as a form of simple entertainment for gamers. However, the context of eSports has begun to change recently in Japan, when the 東京アニメ学校 (Tokyo Anime School) launched a course in eSports aimed at attracting gamers from all over the world and, at the same time, transforming gamers into professionals within the world of video games.
Through hands-on lessons in various eSports genres such as FPS, fighting or RTS, as well as courses in English and personal management within that industry, video game development classes and the use of professional level facilities, this is how Japanese gamers look fully enter the big stage of eSports.
Large companies participate in eSports
With the opening of Japanese gamers to the eSports sector, major local companies have also begun to participate in this competitive international market. As shown on ESPN's website, the developer Konami has already started the construction of an eSports center in the Ginza district, in the heart of Tokyo, being the first of its kind on Japanese soil. Thus, Konami s the companies that promote and eSports, as does the sports betting platform Betway, which has a complete section dedicated to international competitions such as the Overwatch League, the Hearthstone World Championship, or the Korea Starcraft League. Furthermore, Japan is well known for having one of the largest competitive scenes within fighting games, with players who excel in games like Street Fighter V and Tekken 7.
Regarding the above, eSporTV website also covered the EVO Japan 2019 event, which is one of the biggest fighting game events out there, and was held for the second time in the country of the rising sun as an alternate edition of the American circuit Evolution Championship Series.. In this competition, more than 7 thousand gamers and more than 2500 assistants participated in the event where the winners of each modality won a prize of 3 million yen (R$ 100 thousand).
The great contrasts of the Japanese video game industry
Certainly, the video game industry in Japan is one of great contrasts, as the history of the Xbox in Japan has become a failure and disinterest from the gamer audience, since, despite what the Microsoft console has a relative success worldwide, it has never achieved good results in the Japanese market. Much of this is due to the great competition that the American brand has to face in the land of Nintendo and Sony with their respective consoles, in addition to trying to gain the participation of Japanese video game developers to carve out its own path in this Asian market.
Meanwhile, as mentioned by the website UOL, Nintendo mentions that they could move away from the console market in the long term to focus on content for smartphones, theme parks, and movies. This, according to Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, could mitigate the instability of the video game market if deemed necessary in the near future.
The country of the rising sun has a very rich history in the context of video games, with its famous arcade halls that appeared in the 80s and 90s and are still alive today. With the recent openness that Japanese gamers have given to eSports, it is expected that eSports arenas and the major tournaments organized within them will soon become part of the landscape that already contains theme parks focused on virtual reality, thus helping to break the barrier between the physical and digital realms in competitive entertainment.
