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Shinjuku arcade breaks Guinness World Record for having most claw machine games

A man wearing a suit watches as a doll he grabbed with the machine's claw is dropped back into the box while playing a crane game Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A man watches as a doll he grabbed with the machine's claw is dropped back into the box while playing a crane game Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

One of the joys of visiting Japan is the abundance of claw machine games, where you can get a variety of prizes, from as simple as keychains and snacks, to relatively bigger items like plush toys and household goods. With the Sega arcade at Akihabara closing down due to the coronavirus, things seem bleak for such claw machine businesses.

However, the Sega arcade in Shinjuku lives to tell otherwise, breaking the Guinness World Record for having the most claw machine games on 7 January 2021.

In fact, the two-floor arcade in Shinjuku has 477 claw machines, otherwise known as “UFO catchers”. According to the Guinness World Records, the Shinjuku outlet “almost solely houses claw crane game machines” and their world record challenge “was for PR purposes since the arcade has recently been refurbished and reopened.”

The Sega arcade originally opened in July 2017, and had both claw machines and video games — typical of most, if not all multi-storey Sega arcades. However, after revamping, the arcade reopened in December 2020, specialising in claw machines only. Sega’s achievement overtook their competitor Taito Station, who previously held the world record of 454 claw machines at their Fuchu Kururu branch in Tokyo.

Although travelling to Japan is difficult now, the Sega arcade in Shinjuku is a must-visit once we can set foot in the land of the claw machines!

Sega Shinjuku Kabukicho

Tokyo, Shinjuku, Kabukicho 1-21-1
1F 2F Toa Second
Japan 〒160-00211

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