JAPAN Trends and Developments Contributed by: Masayuki Fukuda, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
machines which may be used for originally unintended use stimulating customers’ desire for gaining profit by chance”. Therefore, esports events using only com- puters, tablets, smart phones, or other transmittable devices will not be regulated by the Amusement Busi- ness Act. Meanwhile, esports events using video game machines seem to be regulated by the Amusement Business Act since video game machines are expressly listed as gaming machines in the Amusement Business Act. The National Public Safety Commission, the supervis- ing agency of the Amusement Business Act, has not issued any formal opinion on such issue. However, the purpose of the Amusement Business Act is to regu-
late amusement arcade businesses that may be used to stimulate customers’ desire for gaining profit by chance. Therefore, esports events that do not stimu- late customers’ desire for gaining profit by chance shall not be regulated by the Amusement Business Act. In this regard, the Japan Esports Union (JESU) has published the “Guidelines for Events with Entry Fees” which suggest that if the aggregate amount of the entry fees collected from the participating play- ers will not exceed the operational cost of the event (in other words, the players will pay entry fees only to partially cover the operational cost of the event), such an esports event will not be regulated by the Amusement Business Act since it will not stimulate customers’ desire to gain profit by chance.
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