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#27: Why isn't chess popular in Japan?

#11
@MrLizardWizard said in #4:
> Anybody who is interested in giving shogi a try should go to our sister site, lishogi.org! The playerbase is still small at this time, so there aren't many live games, but it's been slowly picking up steam the last year or two. Just like here, there are tutorials and puzzles, as well as a few variants.

I've heard good things about lishogi, especially with (I believe) other more popular shogi sites which require more paying to get the full bundle—hopefully more chessplayers get interested and also more shogi players get into chess, seems more fun if the base is bigger for both as well as those who play both. The reasons Masukawa propose for chess struggling in Japan paints a pretty good picture of partly why shogi struggles outside Japan.
#12
@abce said in #6:
> Aoshima Mirai is the only existing shogi 'pro' (i.e. they play shogi for a living) that still joins tournaments and being overall quite active. I believe according to him he picks up Chess after watching Habu v. Kasaparov in their two rapid game exhibit match.
>
> ameblo.jp/mirai-227/entry-12812515559.html?frm=theme
>
> You can read his blog for his commentary on his game.
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> The other worth mentioning shogi 'pro' would be Moriuchi Toshiyuki, who was very famous in the 00s, has multiple titles but somewhat retired after falling out of Rank A in Junniisen and decleared himself out of the whole Junnisenn. He dips his toes in multiple games including poker, Backgammon and has a FIDE Rating of 2310
>
> Unlike chess, Shogi and Go in Japan has funding from government that promotes the game, much like the state have support programs to promote scholastic chess they have scholastic program to promote shogi and go. Both of these games are usually considered a part of JP Culture (much like Sumo) and has some sort of coverage on popular culture (like anime and stuff). That, plus the arrival of Fuji Shota has boosted the popularity of shogi in Japan a lot - FYI, Fuji Sota wins like 95% of his sente (white) games and wins 70% of his gote (black games), and he never lost any defending any of his title, and he's only 21. Not even Carlsen at his peak has win rates like these.
>
> So overall I don't think it's fair to compare shogi with chess in Japan simply because chess is not connect to any one single traditional culture. There's also the language barrier, as most of the material for chess is in English.
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> From what I saw on youtube I think a lot of chess player in Japan starts with shogi and moves to chess.

Yes, I follow Aoshima's chess (and read all his blog posts on chess), and I know of Moriuchi also—just decided to focus on Habu in this post :) Thanks for adding more context on shogi, too.
Another commented above saying the comparison is not fair, yes, of course it wouldn't be a fair comparison, it's like comparing chess in a chess nation with shogi there.
#13
Easy........... They have other stuff to do rather than chess... huge fanbase for baseball,ball and an increasing football passion... good at recreational sports as well. Very different compared to china
#14
I remember in my early days that I was interested in several boardgames before chess. In the end I chose chess because there existed a chessclub in my town and no club for the other boardgames. It is a bit chicken and the egg. One doesn't come without the other.
#15
@datajunkie
" Even with all of the online resources now,nothing beats learning from playing over the board"

It is an interesting separate discussion which I coincidentally discussed/ touched last week on my blog: http://schaken-brabo.blogspot.com/2023/08/chesscom.html

Can online chess replace on the board chess? It would solve at once the chess not popular in Japan-issue.

I write in my article that I have strong beliefs that chess.com wants to have full monopoly about chess and would like to see fide disappearing from the battlefield. I personally think chance is very small this will ever happen. Unless we will be forced to stay in our homes (new pandemic, strict climate rules ...) the center of serious competitive chess will remain otb. Nowadays only topprofessionals consider online chess as an important addition to their income and treat online chess seriously. For me online chess is today just having fun and testing out some openings to be used later in serious otb games.
#16
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#20
@peppie23 said in #15:
> @datajunkie
> " Even with all of the online resources now,nothing beats learning from playing over the board"
>
> It is an interesting separate discussion which I coincidentally discussed/ touched last week on my blog: http://schaken-brabo.blogspot.com/2023/08/chesscom.html
>
> Can online chess replace on the board chess? It would solve at once the chess not popular in Japan-issue.
>
> I write in my article that I have strong beliefs that chess.com wants to have full monopoly about chess and would like to see fide disappearing from the battlefield. I personally think chance is very small this will ever happen. Unless we will be forced to stay in our homes (new pandemic, strict climate rules ...) the center of serious competitive chess will remain otb. Nowadays only topprofessionals consider online chess as an important addition to their income and treat online chess seriously. For me online chess is today just having fun and testing out some openings to be used later in serious otb games.

Great post. I don't think OTB chess will be 'replaced' (yet), but the perceived importance of online chess is rising significantly every year. While OTB and online chess might be able to help each other in terms of participation and interest in different ways, it's clear that the momentum is with chess.com and online chess (while we all smile pleasantly on the clouds of Lichess above the chess.com kingdom).
Things will inevitably change, but like you, I hope classical OTB chess can flourish for some decades yet—perhaps in the future, more people will see 'serious' chess as just as much an online thing as OTB. For us 'oldies', online chess is more a training ground for OTB, but with so many people discovering the game online now, perhaps there'll be some generational divides on the notions of 'competitive chess' in the coming decades that we may not be able to predict now.