Unidentified Coin - Pls Help | Japanese Pachinko Token

Thanks for asking, Cheryl. I believe it is a token used in Japanese pachinko parlors, one of many different designs out there.

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I came across this photo searching for Okinawa arcade tokens.To shed a little more light on it, this is most likely an arcade or pachislo token (pachinko is the small steel balls, pachislo are Japanese slot machines). It is not from mainland Japan, but instead the prefecture of Okinawa. The image on the obverse is the Shuri Gate, the entrance to the famed Shuri Castle on the island of Okinawa. I was stationed there for years and recognized it immediately having seen the actual gate a number of times. This particular token is likely from a hotel in the capital city of Naha called the Hotel Tropicana. It is a very unique token. During my time there I collected over 50 different arcade tokens, and I never came across this one. I have a similar one from the 1975 world's fair that also has Shuri Gate on the obverse. I will have to keep my eye out for this one as I am going to be heading back to okinawa next year. Hope this info was helpful. I have attached a couple of photos of Shuri Gate and the hotel.

Japanese pachinko token!?
When I was in Japan in 1965 the pachinko machines that I was familiar with used balls (about 1 cm in diameter) that were stamped with Japanese characters.
Are tokens a newer development?
Have the balls been discontinued?
Or are both in use in various places?

I came across one of these Japanese gaming tokens similar to the first one (top left) on this Flickr link.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26723...0/5540296060

My token collection is quite small but these look like an interesting and reasonably low cost item to collect

@kmed, first welcome to CCF. Second, generally it is better to start a new thread for each new coin/token, but I can understand why you chose instead to add on to this old thread. My go-to website for tokens is tokencatalog.com, but see that they do not have this Japanese gaming token listed yet. I can't imagine that there are records for how many of this type were made, but it seems as though they are relatively hard to find. This may very well be more due to the localized nature of their circulation though.

Yes, gambling was and still is almost completely illegal in Japan. And you have outlined how the pachinko parlours get around Japanese anti-gambling laws.
- First, pachinko and its electronic variants like pachislo are deliberately designed so that they can be classified as "games of skill" (legal) rather than "games of luck" (illegal).
- Second, You aren't allowed to play these "games of skill" for cash, but are allowed to play for "prizes". The tokens are your prize for winning. When you're done gambling (ahem, "playing games of skill") you then leave the pachinko parlour with your bag of tokens, and walk across the street to a "token shop", where a "token dealer" will happily buy your tokens off you for cash. All perfectly legal, officer.

The pachinko parlours and token dealers are, of course, all controlled by the same shadowy corporations and all too often are linked to Japanese organized crime gangs. The secretive and quasi-legal nature of these businesses means that mintage figures for pachinko tokens is rarely known or knowable.