【经济学人】醉了！日本人玩弹球胜过澳门顶级赌场丨2017年2月4日丨总第817期

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MOST forms of gambling are banned in Japan, but many Japanese still like to have a flutter. Over ¥23trn ($203bn) is waged annually on pachinko, a noisy variant of pinball. Add in lottery tickets, plus horse, boat and bicycle racing—the only other types of betting allowed—and you have a vast industry. Pachinko players alone spend more than the combined betting revenue of all the casinos in the world’s top gambling resort, Macau.

虽然日本禁止了大部分的赌博项目，但是许多日本民众还是喜欢小赌一把。每年柏青哥（一种热闹、形式多样的弹球游戏）产业就能创造23万亿日元的收入（约2030亿美元）。再加上彩票、赛马、赛船、赛车等（其他几种能进行赌博的项目），这实际上是个蕴藏巨大商机的产业。柏青哥玩家们在这一个项目上投入的钱要超过世界顶级赌场胜地澳门的各大赌场收入的总和。

Japan’s government has struggled to convince citizens that the current strictures should be relaxed. When the Diet legalised casinos in December after years of political wrangling, a poll by NHK, the country’s public broadcaster, put support for the move at just 12%. The leader of Komeito, a party with Buddhist roots that is part of the governing coalition, voted against the bill. Critics said it would exacerbate problem gambling and attract “anti-social forces”, a euphemism for yakuza gangs.

日本政府一直试图让民众相信目前严格的博彩业管理是可以适度放松的日本放送协会（日本最大的广播电视机构）做了一项民意调查，结果显示，当国会经过几年考虑最终于12月同意将赌博合法化时，这项举动的支持率只有12%。日本公明党（与佛教组织有密切关系，现为日本联合政府一部分的党派）领袖投票否决此法案。批评家们说这项规定将恶化问题赌博并且会引起反社会分子（也就是日本黑道）的注意。

• Euphemism: n.委婉语
  

Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, insists casinos will be only one part of family-friendly resorts, with hotels, shops and conference facilities. In an anaemic economy, his enthusiasm is not hard to understand: the construction of these huge complexes could generate ¥5trn in economic activity—with another ¥2trn a year once they have opened, largely from increased tourism, estimates Makoto Yonekawa of the Daiwa Institute of Research, a think-tank.

首相安倍晋三坚称赌场将会是有利于家庭生活的、带有宾馆、商店和会议设施的胜地。“期待您的翻译，将您的理解留言在文章下方留言处，第二天将会有长难句解析哟~。”

Foreign casino-operators have already begun lobbying for a slice of this pie. Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts and Hard Rock Café International are among the companies looking for licences and local partners. Bureaucrats are crafting more legislation to decide how many resorts to permit and where to put them. This, say analysts, is where the road could get bumpy.

外国赌场经营商们已经在暗中争取经营许可权，寻求当地合作伙伴，从而能及时分得一杯羹，拉斯维加斯金沙集团、米高梅度假村硬石咖啡国际集团就位列其中。官员就在不停规划赌场区，而这就是分析家们说的“不好做”的地方。

Some politicians want to deter locals from visiting casinos by imposing an entry tax. Pachinko’s seedy reputation is one reason. Though the industry has shrunk by about 40% from its peak 20 years ago, there are still about 11,000 pachinko parlours—and thousands of addicts. Public hostility recently forced the mayor of Yokohama, one of three proposed sites for the resorts, to begin back-pedalling on her support. Investors fear outbreaks of NIMBYism elsewhere, too. In a recent survey 75% of Japanese said they would not like a casino to be built near their homes.

一些政治家们想通过征收入场税来阻止当地居民进入赌场，其中之一就是因为柏青哥是出了名的乌烟瘴气。尽管柏青哥的发展和20年前的顶峰时期相比，下降了40%，但现在依然有一万多片柏青哥游戏厅以及数以千计的上瘾者。横滨是三个计划将建设赌场区的城市之一，但是由于公众的强烈抵制，市长为了自己的支持率不得不做出让步。投资方也害怕各地兴起邻避主义。最近的一项调查显示75%的受访者不愿意政府在自己家附近建赌场。

• back-pedalling: v.向后移步

Officials in Osaka have come up with a way around this problem: they want to build a resort on an artificial island in Osaka Bay. Well-heeled tourists, mainly from China, are expected to be the main punters, says Susumu Hamamura, a Komeito politician. About 20m people visited Japan last year. The government wants to double this by 2020, along with the roughly ¥3.5trn that tourists spend annually.

大阪官员们就这个问题想到了一个方法，就是在大阪湾附近的人工岛上建赌场区。日本公明党政治家千叶进步表示，大部分来自中国的富豪游客将成为赌场区的顾客。去年，来日本游玩的游客数量约有两千万。政府希望到2020年，这个数字能够翻一番，同时游客在日本的开销能够达到每年3.5万亿日元。

Even if the casinos get off the ground, Japan faces stiff regional competition from Macau, Malaysia and Singapore. What will give the country an edge, predicts MrYonekawa, is Japanese culture. The proposed sites for another mooted resort, in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, are onsen (hot spring) retreats, he points out. “Japanese cuisine and hospitality will win many customers.”

就算日本的赌场业能够发展起来，也要同澳门、马来西亚、新加坡等地进行激烈的竞争。千叶进步表示，能够让日本博彩业胜出一筹的将是日本的文化。他指出，还有一个悬而未决的待开发地区是日本最北部的岛屿--北海道的温泉聚集区，日本的美食和服务将会吸引不少顾客。

MrHamamura agrees. He voted for the casino bill despite opposition from his own party boss because he believes it will be good for Japan. “Over 140 countries have legal casinos; why should we be left out?” he asks. Even he accepts, however, that most Japanese are “emotionally” against casinos and will need to be convinced. He plans to win them over, he says, by explaining one of the overlooked benefits of the resorts: they will give foreigners something to do at night.

千叶进步是同意建设赌场的。尽管与自己所在政党的意见相左，他还是支持自己认为有益日本发展的产业。他问道：“世界上有超过140个国家有赌场，为什么我们不能有？”尽管他本人支持，但是大部分日本人还是从情感上抵触赌场。千叶进步打算说服这些民众，他本人表示，我要告诉他们赌博区存在被忽略的好处之一就是能够外国人在晚上有事可做。

翻译 ▍E-Z-1

审核 ▍Arias

编辑 ▍hua外音