Video Gaming in Japan

Japan may have the world's 10th largest population but it is the second largest market for gaming after the USA. Although neither videogames nor games consoles were invented in the country, there is no doubt that Japanese people have embraced both.

In September, thousands of Japanese gamers made the annual pilgrimage to the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) to pay homage to the videogames industry and to check out the latest it had to offer.

And if one were looking for evidence of how much Japanese gamers are devoted to the digital artform, you needed to look no further than the crowds of people wearing "cosplay". Short for "costume play", it involves dressing up as characters from Manga, anime, and video games. It is perhaps the Japanese version of being a Star Trek fanatic.

The culture that spawned it certainly attracts the same level of devotion. For example, when Japanese internet entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto announced his plans to become the fourth tourist to visit the International Space Station he said that he would blast off wearing a replica costume of Char Aznable, a character from the anime series Gundam.

Had he not failed his medical tests, Dice-K as the entrepreneur is nicknamed, would have been the first fancy-dress astronaut in space. At TGS, Gundam devotees mingled with cyber-pirates, robots and fantasy figures.

Adapted from BBC Online, September 2006

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