This is a day in the life of a Japanese casino worker
This is Kento, 27 years old, living in Tokyo,
and this is how he gets ready for his day.
Unlike most Japanese, he prefers to take a short shower in the morning to start his day.
So Kento's job requires him to change into uniform when he arrives,
but despite this he prefers to wear a suit during his commute.
In fact, it's common for Japanese men to wear suits
even though they will change into another uniform when they reach their workplace.
So today he has hayaban which means early shift.
Depending on the day, he rotates with other staff
between early shift and night shift, osoban.
He says, though, his company is careful to avoid scheduling
a morning shift following a night shift on the previous day.
He lives about 15 minutes away from work by train.
He decidedly lives in a relatively less crowded area, mostly residential,
with some shops and restaurants near the station,
so that he has direct train line access to Shinjuku station,
the world's busiest train station,
with over 3.6 million people passing through daily.
It's usually more crowded with people at the station, but today is Saturday,
so there's far less commuters and salarymen, especially at this time.
So it's quite early this morning,
but Kento's train should be arriving shortly here in Shinjuku.
So, how long did you sleep last night?
Before he arrives at work,
he stops at the convenience store to pick up his lunch.
Oh, he's paying via phone app, which is relatively new in Japan
as about 80 percent of transactions are still cash based.
Kento works at Maruhan - one of the largest casino entertainment companies in Japan
with 60 years of history and more than 23,000 employees.
Maruhan offers slot machines and pachinko,
which has become an integral part of Japanese culture,
accounting for 1/3 of the Japanese entertainment and leisure market
and don't worry, I'll explain pachinko a little bit later on in this video.
Before Kento clocks in, he usually has a quick smoke
at the smoking room next to the main office.
In fact, Japan is well known for its open smoking culture
compared to many Western countries,
but, from April 2020, Japan completely bans indoor smoking,
except for designated smoking rooms like this one.
So once clocked in, he had to change into his uniform.
Kento, what are you doing?
So he also needs to change into work shoes.
I guess the man knows what he likes.
So the company actually dry cleans
all the workers' shirts at the end of each day,
so they look fresh and clean when they start work.
What's that?
Damn, you need to carry more tools with you?
To complete his uniform, he wears a wireless headset
in order to communicate with other staff throughout the day.
Is that a floor map?
And since his picture's set aside, he has the free roaming position today.
So Kento just arrived at work. He's changed. He's ready to go.
Now he has to go around and prepare the casino area.
Let's see what he does.
So Kento works as a pachinko parlor hall manager,
and his first task of the morning is to ensure
that all the machines are working properly.
He checks to see if the balls are moving correctly,
if balls are not left over from the previous day,
and that a guidebook is set on the side of each machine.
He does this one by one, for each machine on the floor.
Next, he must ensure that all of the floor signage is working properly.
So you need to clean outside too?
And this is a line for customers waiting to enter,
so they can get their first pick of the machines.
The doors actually open at 10 a.m today,
but customers start lining up just before 9:00.
Interestingly though, the parlor hosts a morning lottery
to decide who gets to enter first and their choice of the machine.
So it's Kento's job to also organize the line
so that customers don't block pedestrians up walking through.
Like many traditional Japanese companies,
Kento's workplace starts a day with a morning meeting called chorei.
But their morning meeting is a little more energetic than most,
as they perform koedashi, which means they practice
speaking clearly and loudly in proper language, in unison.
Because the pachinko hall is a loud working environment,
it's critical for the staff to be able to speak to customers
and each other clearly, at a high volume.
Now he gets a short break.
You're number one, how did you win?
Wow, so, there's more than a thousand people lined up outside.
I can't wait to see what happens when they all get in here.
Finally, lottery time.
They have a special machine, aptly called Fortune, for customers to draw tickets.
And again, it's Kento's job to organize the people in line.
When the hall opens,
Kento focuses on greeting and welcoming
each and every customer that enters.
Wow, only a few minutes after opening,
the floor is filled with customers.
Now he must walk around the floor to assist the customers
if they have any questions or need help.
From here, it appears that he's super close to the customer,
but it's a necessary distance as the hall is extremely loud.
Yay, finally lunchtime!
So his lunch breaks are only 30 minutes long,
so he needs to be quick.
To save time, he usually eats convenience store food in the office.
Today he went with a curry bento, which actually looks pretty good.
As part of his job he also has a bit of computer work.
He needs to verify the hikitsugi,
which is basically a daily record of events from the shift before him.
Staff must report what happened during the shift
with things like machines, customers, etc, and share it with the next shift,
so there isn't a break in their service quality.
So while Kento is doing some work right there,
let me show you around and show you how this whole thing works.
So Maruhan has pachinko and slot machines.
Slot machines are fairly universal, so let me explain how to play pachinko.
Pachinko is a type of mechanical ball game resembling pinball,
but instead with many tiny balls
and with the aim to drop the balls into a specific pocket in the machine.
If one of the balls goes into the designated pocket called start chakka,
it will initiate a slot machine like roll on the LCD screen.
If the numbers or patterns line up, then it's a jackpot
and then your winnings - more balls - will be dispensed in the bottom of the tray.
So here's the interesting part - the winnings can be used
to claim various prizes like these, offered at the front desk,
but cannot be claimed for cash directly,
since gambling is prohibited by Japanese law.
Instead, the winnings can be exchanged into gold chips,
then outside at a neighboring TUC shop the gold chips can be exchanged for cash.
And they even have an app which reports the usage history
and winning statistics from each machine.
Which is one of the reasons why many customers want
to come early and get their choice on the machine.
Now he's back in the hall, and similar to the morning he attends to customers,
but as the machines get used by customers,
he must ensure that each machine remains clean.
So he wipes out each machine and takes trash away from customers.
In Japanese customer service, there's an old saying
"Okyakusama wa Kamisama" which directly translated "Customers are God".
Which basically means that even if the customers are saying something wrong,
you still apologize while also being extremely polite
and careful to never get in a customer's way.
Oh, he found a ball on the floor.
In this case, he usually gives it to the closest customer sitting down.
So when a customer continues to win
they eventually run out of space for their winnings.
Whether that happens, Kento's job is to create more space for them.
He uses this special cart to store the balls or metals
which is locked up, so no one steals it.
I guess the customer has taken a meal break.
So during this time, Kento turns off the machine
so that other customers can't use it.
This is a coin counter for the slot machines.
He's also responsible for helping clean the toilets
Now he gets another short break.
So how many breaks do you get in a day?
So, what are you doing now?
So he does this several times a day,
looking for data errors and potential fraud.
If he discovers a problem, he immediately notifies the floor staff
to resolve the issue, ensuring that customers have an enjoyable experience.
Oh, there's number one. He's working on something.
What are you doing right now?
Now he's reviewing the security camera footage.
Apparently, the system can register customers who steal via face-recognition.
The system can even detect these customers
despite covering up with hats or masks.
So as part of being the hall manager,
Kento must evaluate the floor staff, periodically.
His company emphasizes superior customer service,
so frequent evaluations is a crucial part of maintaining their level of service.
Oh nice, they have a "How to play" book in different languages for foreign customers.
She's a new employee,
you can tell by the yellow and green badge on her shirt,
and he's gonna give her feedback now.
He tells me that
when he was on the other end of the table when he first started
the process allowed him to learn a lot about customer service.
Now it's his turn to write up the hikitsugi for the next shift,
so they can see what happened today.
Finally, it's time to wrap up the shift with shurei, a final staff meeting.
In this meeting, staff share what happened during the day
and use it as a learning moment, so they can better perform in the future.
At the end, the staff perform a pocket check to help prevent staff theft.
Oh, it's her last day of work, so she's giving a speech.
In Japan, it's customary for staff
to present a shikishi - a huge card with messages on it.
Yay, now we're done with work.
Instead of going home, Kento usually goes out
for dinner and drinking with his coworkers.
So now they're headed to the restaurant
to meet up with some of their co-workers.
In Japan, drinking at dinner with a group of people is called nomikai
often held at an Izakaya drinking restaurant.
For many Japanese, nomikais are an important part of work culture
as this is where they really get to know their co-workers
which helps create a stronger bond at the workplace.
In fact, Kento says that many of the staff live on the same train line,
so they often go out with each other.
So Kento and his co-workers are going to be here probably until 10 o'clock,
eating and drinking, and after that, who knows, because they're in Shinjuku,
but it's pretty much the day in the life of a Japanese casino worker.
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