Genda Gigo Entertainment announced on July 15 that it will close the Akihabara Gigo 1 arcade at the end of August 2025. This was Sega’s flagship arcade and its red building has been a landmark of Tokyo’s electronics district for 32 years, as reported by IT Media.
Tokyo’s Akihabara, known for its anime, manga and game-related stores and plethora of tiny electronics shops, has been undergoing big changes in the last few years. Many of the smaller, niche shops where you could find everything from obscure bishojo titles to specific electronic parts are being replaced by more mainstream and tourist-orientated stores. Arcades in Japan have been hit hard over the past five years by factors such as the COVID pandemic restrictions and dwindling customers.
Located right outside Akihabara Station, the Akihabara Gigo 1 arcade first opened in 1992 as High Tech Land Sega Shintoku. It would later change its name to Club Sega Akihabara and then Sega Akihabara 1, but it remained the first of Sega’s five numbered arcades in the area, the bright red walls of the buildings making them hard to miss.
In 2020, Sega started to pull out of the arcade business, with Genda gradually buying up the shares. In 2022, Genda acquired the whole of Sega’s arcade and amusement business, renaming it Genda Gigo Entertainment. This was when all of Sega’s arcades in Japan got rebranded Gigo, but kept their iconic red walls and some of the Sega-related attractions.
However, according to the official announcement from Genda Gigo Entertainment, Akihabara Gigo 1 is closing down on August 31, 2025 because the fixed-term lease on the building has expired. If you are getting deja vu, that’s because this is not the first time such a fate has befallen former Sega arcades in the area. Sega Akihabara 4 briefly got rebranded by Gigo before being shut down by the company in 2022 as the fixed-term lease expired (source: Sora News). With both buildings being so close to a major station, it’s likely that the rental agreement was deemed too expensive to renew.
Ending its announcement of Akihabara Gigo 1’s closure on a positive note, Gigo reminded arcade fans that the company still has three remaining arcades in Akihabara. Also, the Akihabara Gigo building is set to be turned into a new amusement facility by Matahari Entertainment, which operates the Silk Hat chain of game centers. “Collaborating with Matahari Entertainment, we will contribute even further to the development of Akihabara and Japan’s pop culture,” Genda Gigo Entertainment stated.
As a side note, Sega will open Sega Store Tokyo this month. The company’s first official retail store in Japan will sell exclusive merch featuring Sega and Atlus characters.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
