According to the “Leisure White Paper 2026” published by the Japan Productivity Center, the domestic leisure-related market scale in 2025 was estimated at 78.132 trillion yen, a 3.9% increase from the previous year. This reached 108.1% compared to 2019 levels, with all sectors (Sports, Hobbies and Creative Activities, Amusements, and Tourism and Travel) surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
The Leisure White Paper divides the leisure market into four sectors: “Sports,” “Hobbies and Creative Activities,” “Amusements,” and “Tourism and Travel.” The “Amusements” sector includes the government-sanctioned race betting market, pachinko/pachi-slot, and amusement arcades.
In 2025, the market scale for the “Amusements” sector was approximately 45 trillion yen, up 4.6% year-on-year. Within this sector, while the combined gross wagering handle for the government-sanctioned race betting market—encompassing horse racing, Keirin (track cycling), hydroplane boat racing, and flat-track motorcycle racing, largely driven by the expansion of online betting channels—grew to approximately 8.95 trillion yen (a 6.7% increase year-on-year), the pachinko/pachi-slot market stood at 16.2 trillion yen, remaining flat compared to the previous year.
Note that in the Leisure White Paper, the market scale for pachinko/pachi-slot represents the operators’ total revenue calculated on a ball/token rental fee basis, which differs fundamentally from the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) metric used in the casino industry.
Meanwhile, according to estimates by DAIKOKU DENKI CO., LTD., the pachinko/pachi-slot industry’s total gross profit in 2025—which corresponds to GGR—was 2.48 trillion yen, down 2.4% from the previous year.
text by Tanaka Tsuyoshi