Zeon Attack!

Unsurprisingly, job-listing pamphlets litter the entrances of many Tokyo arcades. In one Shibuya game room, we saw two students smiling from a public service poster from the National Police Agency, which regulates arcades as well as Pachinko (a gambling game played with steel marbles) and slot machine parlors, with which they are often paired. MANY ADULTS CARE FOR YOU, the poster read. NOW OUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS. YOU DO NOT BELONG ONLY TO YOURSELF. YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL OF US.

Adults want Japanese kids to leave the arcades, go to work and save the country. But they're too busy saving the world, one Gundam battle at a time.

Brad Stone will be writing from Tokyo this summer on a Japan Society Media Fellowship

© 2006