this is a day in the life of a Japanese
Game Center worker
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this is my 40 years old living in the
center of Tokyo and she's just waking up
for
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work she took a bath last night as most
Japanese typically do so this morning
she simply washes her face and quickly
gets ready for the day
ahead she lives with her cat in this one
LDK apartment a bedroom a living room
with separate dining and kitchen
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she usually doesn't eat a full breakfast
at home but we'll start with a cup of
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tea I see you have a switch you play a
lot cool what do you
play are you any
good okay you have a lot of manga too
what's your favorite these
days huh I'll check it out
before leaving she feeds her cat and
plays a bit her regular routine just
before heading
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off she commutes to work by train at
three stops without a transfer which
takes about 30 minutes at door to door
fairly normal in Japan her home though
is about a 15minute walk away from the
closest train station which may be a
little bit too long for some people but
she enjoys the morning stroll through
her Serene
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neighborhood good morning everyone I'm
back with another day in the life and
I'm super excited to get this one
started because I wanted to film this
for such a long time and it's been a
little bit difficult to try to get
permission but we finally got it m
should be coming around surely so we can
get this thing started good morning did
he sleep well last night
before going to her workplace she
stopped by the nearest convenience store
to pick up her
breakfast and this is Ma's workplace Tio
station one of Japan's most popular game
center chains her company Tao is
famously known for some of the world's
first arcade games such as Space
Invaders and Bubble Bobble now with more
than than 160 game centers and other
entertainment facilities all throughout
Japan the company continues to innovate
and provide fun and exciting
entertainment to all of its customers
and my a key part of this is she's the
store manager for their Takata no Baba
game
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center before she officially starts she
changes into her uniform
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nice other workers are here
too what are you
drinking oh
interesting her first task of the day is
to check her email review the previous
day's sales results and to confirm the
sales targets for today so the store
sales are your responsibility
okay do you get a bonus here oh
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nice so how was your last
bonus good for
you cool since other workers already had
a meeting about the prizes she's
provided a summary so that she can use
that information to help increase their
sales my where are you going
now she walks to the floor to see if
they need to make adjustments before the
shop opens like switching the prizes or
refilling any of the
machines a wow my and the other workers
are moving around the
machines so why did you switch the
location of the
machine as mentioned earlier it's her
responsibility to maximize the Shop's
profits interestingly though she enjoys
the analytics of it viewing it in itself
as a puzzle or a mini game adjusting the
locations of certain machines so they
perform better is all part of solving
the
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puzzle next she Powers up the machines
and all the lights on the
floor is that
it her game center has almost every type
of arcade game you could imagine with a
total of 132 different types gam so
something for
everyone as she walks back to the office
she verifies that all the machines are
turned on properly and attends to any
that may require a
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reboot any Machines working funky
today oh what's your favorite game to
play Oh any tips on how to
win well you're not lying
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15 minutes before the game Center opens
my gathers the workers for CH their
daily morning meeting and how you
present the customers is deeply
important so the workers review each
other's uniforms and overall appearance
identifying any flaws that need to be
corrected before
working next the workers recite eight
key customer service terms one example
is a proper etiquette to greet and
address customers there's a particular
way to speak politely in Japanese this
ensures their words are delivered
naturally all this a common practice in
retail shops and
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restaurants oh nice their uniforms are
customized to fit their radio
transceivers
dope hey what's
that oh don't 13 is really bright having
strict hair regulations is common in
Japan for many companies in fact
Analytics from Japan's buono University
Pro that bleach hair can convey a scary
and unfriendly impression giving more
reason to have such regulations but over
time with more diverse perspectives
these rules are
softening at 10: the game center is
officially open for
business ma along with other workers
stand in various locations at the
entrance to welcome and greet the
customers quite typical in Japan for
entertainment related businesses
so it looks like M's going to be in the
office for just a little bit longer so
while she's doing all of this let's see
what's a game around
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here let's see what is going on around
here this is pretty awesome we got games
all
around look at this guy playing this
game that's my my DX Splash it's been a
popular game in Japan for quite a while
basically players start by selting a
song and as it plays they tap the side
buttons and swipe the screen along with
music regular players of the game will
often wear gloves for smoother gameplay
while also helping to protect their
hands and they even have racing games
here so instead of me trying to play
this game for the first time it's like
that guy behind me is a pretty
experience so let's see how he plays
that's a card action game based on
Japan's historical Samurai stories and
characters by moving a warlord card its
Army moves a with it on screen hi do you
play this
often the cards are provided
here so how many cards do you
have damn that's a lot
thanks so this right here is one of
their metal gates maybe I can just get a
few coins to see how this all works so
first I think we get some points from
right here
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so basically you drop in more medals
game tokens and when they overflow you
get those
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tokens now she's filling up the gacha
games it's extremely popular among young
kids in Japan prizes vary from random
mascots to toys of popular character
items
after she's done with a gachapon task
she's going to walk the floor to help
customers and take care of the
machines who why is checking on the
crane games if there are too many prizes
left over or the other way around it
means that it's too easy or too
difficult so she makes adjustments
throughout the day as much as she wants
to make each and every customer happy by
helping make the game easier it's also
her responsibility to maintain a certain
profit for the games also she stays
mindful of keeping the games clean for
customer by wiping away handprints on
the machines maybe a reason why Japanese
game centers are extremely clean and
organized hey Mike you can only get one
prize for this
one are there players that win
everything can everyone get that
good nice
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finally M takes her lunch break today
she decides to get some lunch at a
nearby fast food
shop so do you come here
often me too what did you
get since the workers at the game center
take turns on their lunch break ma
usually eats by herself this is fairly
common for retail stores in Japan in
order to maximize worker
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efficiency since one of the Video Game
Machines is broken Mike called the
repair man from their Tech team they
repair games at their own title game
centers while also carrying out repairs
on their own games at independent
locations what was wrong with
it nice so how long have you been doing
this
oh really how did you get this job on
the tech
team he worked diligently to learn as
much as he could on his own and stayed
focused on understanding the technical
side of each machine and eventually when
a spot opened up on the tech team he was
able to prove that he knew enough to be
able to grow into the new job so do you
specialize in
anything
amazing great the machine is fixed and
she receives the final report from the
technician so it looks like M has even
more office work so while she's doing
this let's see if we can score some more
points out
there Hy this is just so much fun going
around a game center cuz I actually want
to play all of these games myself
looks like they have a drummer section
here they have guitars over there they
even have a DJ booth right here pretty
cool these are called Oto gay in Japan
Oto meaning sounds gay short for game
they became popular in the last decade
and continue to
evolve check out this guy he's killing
it earlier versions of these dancing
style Rhythm games relied on a control
pad on the floor for player input while
now cameras can simply sense the players
movement excuse me what's this
area ah so what's your
responsibility and how long have you
been working
here that's pretty long so why do you
like working
here nice what games do you like these
days
who that sounds really cool thank
you hello can I ask what you're
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doing how long have you worked
here ah you're new why did you choose to
work at a game center
oh that's
great so how can I get
better okay
thanks cool look we even have Majong
here interesting so Majong horse racing
and even Bingo sound like a casino but
at a Japanese Game Center you can't win
money but rather just more game tokens
as they purely for
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entertainment now may is back on the
arcade floor similar to the task she
performed in the morning she continues
to ensure that her customers are having
an enjoyable
experience nice Maya's helping out the
customer customers in Japanese game
centers it's common to ask the staff for
tips and advice on how to win especially
for the crane games and apparently if
you're struggling a lot they'll even
adjust the position of the prize so it's
easier to
win in recent years crane games have
become the most popular arcade game in
Japan there are even game centers which
specialize in only these machines
interestingly though the number of game
centers in Japan is down by 50% compared
to the last 20 years but the recent
surgeon and popularity has helped
Revitalize the prize Game Center helping
boost the industry
back it seems like she's wrapping up for
the day and the afternoon shift are
already here oh is that
you where is it from
she won first place in Japan among all
of their 2200 workers in their 160 title
game centers that's very
impressive now my gives instructions to
the afternoon shift
workers before going home she quickly
reviews today's sales so far so how was
today's sales
like which
anime yay finally done where are you
going tonight she's having a drink with
her co-workers and Friends within the
company from takadanobaba to Shinjuku
it's only two stations away so it's very
close
I guess they're going to a beer and
darts bar nice my friend is here
too hi so how long have you known
my I
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see all right so it looks like May's
going to be here for a lot longer
probably until midnight before she
catches the last
then she'll go home take a bath and then
go to sleep after that but that's pretty
much a day in the life of a Japanese
Game Center worker if you guys like this
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