Bowling in Japan: History, Boom and Round1

Bowling in Japan: a short history

Bowling came to Japan with the Americans after the Second World War. Japan's first sanctioned bowling center outside the military opened on 10 October 1952. From the early 1960s the game grew quickly, and around 1970 bowling in Japan became a nationwide boom: by the early 1970s there were close to 3,700 bowling centers in the country.

The bowling boom of the 1960s and 1970s

The boom was driven by technology and television. In March 1963 the Japanese company Daifuku produced the country's first tenpin pinsetter and went on to supply bowling centers across Japan. According to the company, bowling reached its peak in 1972, when as many as ten million people played.

Television made bowlers famous. On 21 August 1970 the professional Ritsuko Nakayama rolled a perfect 300 game on Japanese national television – the first woman to do so on television anywhere. She appeared in commercials and in a TV drama, and became one of the faces of the boom.

Bowling centers of that era were built on a large scale. Inazawa Grand Bowl in Aichi prefecture, which opened on 24 March 1972 with 116 lanes, is still listed by Guinness World Records as the largest bowling alley in the world. After 1972, the boom declined rapidly. More large centers are described in our article on the biggest bowling centers in the world.

How bowling is organised in Japan

Two organisations shape the sport in Japan:

• Japan Bowling Congress (JBC): founded in 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics, it is the governing body for amateur tenpin bowling and sanctions tournaments for men and women.
• Japan Professional Bowling Association (JPBA): founded in 1967, it sanctions professional bowling for men and women.

Japanese bowlers are also successful internationally, particularly in Asia: at the 2018 Asian Games, for example, the Japanese men successfully defended their title in the trios event.

Round1: bowling as part of an entertainment center

For many visitors, modern bowling in Japan means Round1. The company was founded in Japan in 1980; its centers combine bowling with arcade games, karaoke and billiards, and larger locations add Spo-Cha, an area with various sports activities. In 2010 Round1 opened its first store in the United States, at Puente Hills Mall in California, and has since expanded there.

Japanese bowling equipment

Japan also has its own bowling equipment industry. ABS, headquartered in Tokyo, was founded in 1964 as a distributor of bowling balls and today distributes and manufactures bowling supplies. HI-SP is another Japanese brand of bowling balls.

Tips for bowling in Japan

Bowling centers can be found in many Japanese cities, from large entertainment complexes to smaller neighbourhood centers. If you rent or buy shoes there, keep in mind that shoe sizes in Japan are given in centimetres. BOWLIO bowling shoes list EU, US and JP sizes side by side.

And if you want to spend an evening with bowling on screen, our list of bowling movies worth watching is a good place to start.