Japanese arcades continue to take a dive in their fight against the modern era.
According to Japanese Twitter account @iidx_close which keeps record of closing videogame arcades reported online, 257 stores have shut down in the year 2015. This only includes arcades that were reported, and the actual count is expected to be higher.
Jan: 41 stores
Feb: 23 stores
March: 29 stores
April: 9 stores
May: 27 stores
June: 20 stores
July: 11 stores
August: 22 stores
September: 30 stores
October: 15 stores
November: 22 stores
December: 8 stores
Arcade operator Port 24 exlains that Janurary is a particlarly popular month amongst arcade owners to close shop, one of the reasons being that they want to rake in profits from the busy year-end before shutting down.
Statistics by the NPA show that 7,137 stores were in business back in 2010, of which only 5,439 were still around in 2014.
Reflex Tester
