Bowling alleys target the silver yen
Tokyo bowling alleys are eerily identical to ones found in suburban America -- just without the greasy hamburger and french fry stands. (Photo by Flickr user mersy)Bowling alleys look to the elderly
Kyodo News (via The Japan Times) reports that bowling alleys in Japan are starting to target older Japanese customers since there are not enough young customers to keep the business alive.
In 2008, Japan's active bowling population decreased 6 percent, and the number of bowling alleys nationwide dipped under 1,000. At the sport's peak in 1972, there were an incredible 3,697 alleys. Somewhere a very depressing pile of brightly colored epoxy balls is gathering dust.
So the only solution for the bowling industry is to get the generation who loved knocking down pins in the early 1970s to come back to the game in later life. We say, entice them with the tagline: "Bowling: The only sport that can safely be played while drinking lots of beer."
In other news
Asashoryu punches an acquaintance in the face: Mongolian sumo sensation Asashoryu allegedly got drunk and broke someone's nose on January 16. We can all learn the lesson from this incident: Do not get into late-night, post-booze arguments with the Yokozuna grand champion.
Nintendo's profit down: The game company's profits for the last nine-months of 2009 were down 9 percent even though holiday shoppers gobbled up the lower-priced ¥20,000 systems and "New Super Mario Bros. Wii." So who stole the profit margin? We have our eyes on Wario and Waruigi -- they're always up to no good.
More bullets mailed to politicians: Both Ichiro Ozawa and Yukio Hatoyama of the DPJ received bullets in the mail. Yes, everyone should condemn this crude form of violent threat, but if this continues at the current pace, it will be a great way to get stray bullets out of the hands of political extremists.
