Approximately 7,000 competitors will descend upon Toyko Japan for EVO Japan. It will be the biggest fighting game competition since Tougeki who shut their doors in 2012. More importantly, it will play precursor to the rise of Japanese esports, a country that has seen its potential in esports dampened by a mixture of political and cultural resistance to movements in the country.





Japan, an important contributor to the video game industry and culture for many years, has largely been absent from esports outside owning a few major players in the fighting game community. The reasoning for this is simple, it is impossible to make a living solely as an esports player in the country.

The reason for this are gambling laws and a special part of the Japan Anti-monopoly Law called The Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations. This part of the law puts a 100,000 yen ($895) cap on cash prizes for events that have an aim at selling a specific product. When gaming companies sponsor esports event, from the Japanese legal perspective, these tournaments are seen as promotional events designed to sell games and as such are capped in the prize money they can offer.





Without ways to generate revenue from events in Japan, smaller esports organizations must rely solely on events outside the country and as such, the safer bet becomes sponsoring individual fighting game players as opposed to full teams.





A group of gaming organizations have banded together and through a loophole in the law, will be establishing pro player licenses that will allow them to host large-scale esports events. While it is only a start, this will bring in the number of esports events.The move itself has already been criticized by players like Yusuke Momochi because of the nature of defining a "pro player," which goes against the idea of open tournaments that the Japanese fighting game scene has built itself on; a change to the law is the most feasible solution to the current esports issue in Japan but changing the law is being met with considerable pushback.

Probably the most prominent co-branded advertising I’ve seen for an FGC event yet. This is dope on so many levels. pic.twitter.com/i1vZF7u1gV — Rick (@TheHadou) January 23, 2018

There is hope for esports in Japan. According to Rolling Stone, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering taking further steps to amend laws that will make it possible for professional players to earn a living. Lawmaker, Takeo Kawamura, also said in the Rolling Stone piece that for Japan, the goal is to ultimately make it possible for professional video game players to win Olympic medals. Kawamura was quoted telling Bloomberg, “Once we have a gold medalist like, say, Daichi Suzuki, then people will begin to see [video games are also a sport]." We're a long way from that but if the idea is to show the people that esports can be a lucrative and fulling endeavor, they won't have to look any further than EVO Japan.





On Jan. 26, the open format of EVO will introduce to the Japanese public an event that, while being a smaller scale than events in the west, will overall be a scale the country has not seen for esports. Brands like Redbull and Nissin have put their advertising push behind it in the public which should garner some considerable curiosity.





More importantly, Japanese people will see a majority their own people shine and compete among all levels of gameplay from names like Momochi to lesser-known arcade legends and international talent from all over the world. The Japanese media and press, many for the first time, will be able to get first-hand accounts from pro players at a large scale esports event on home soil. The experience will play a large part in conversations about esports in the future, especially with Olympic aspirations on the minds of politicians.

The #EvoJapan2018 event guide has information about all of the side tournaments going down this weekend. Tourneys include USF4, MvCI, 3rd Strike, Catherine, Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle, & much more.https://t.co/eYCqbWc8ws — AceKingOffsuit (@acekingoffsuit) January 25, 2018

Feb. 10 will see the first tournament with the introduction of the pro player l icenses, with many of the competitors playing in Street Fighter V Arcade Edition and Tekken 7 but it will lack the size and scale that an event with the EVO branding will have. If the idea is to truly make a push to show the strength of esports in Japan, Evo Japan will be the best way to do so.

Photo Courtesy of EVO