Warhammer 40K in Japan?

Afternoon/Evening and maybe even morning Bols forum!

So i'm sure you'll all agree with me when I say that the majority of the audience behind this forum are either from Europe or America, but its a rare occasion we ever hear from the hobby in the land of the rising sun.

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So I just wanted to know if there was anybody about here that had experienced 40k or any table top wargame in Japan or Asia as a whole, how popular is it?

GW have a Japanese section to their site so i'm sure there is a market, how come we never hear about it? Or am i just loosing in the wrong place?

GW have retail shops in Japan and China. As far as I am aware the China is a new thing, but in Japan it has been more established for a long time. Though it only accounts for 1.2% of sales (by revenue).

I believe we have a few Asian Bolsters.

No idea if he is a member here on BoLS but I have Ryogo Yamani (I think that's his name anyway) page bookmarked as he has an awesome Imperial fists army that I like to look at for inspiration for my own force. He has a lot of other armies too, his page is in Japanese though, so I find having a second browser window open on google translate comes in handy!

[URL="http://page.freett.com/realmofrman/"]http://page.freett.com/realmofrman/[/URL]

Does Katharon? or similar post from there? But I think that might be a US millitary poster. But they'll probably know about the shops and such like.

I live in Japan and play 40K all the time. There are several expat and Servicemen/women that play, but there is also a thriving Japanese community that plays. There is even a group of French guys that live north-west of Tokyo that make it out to events we hold. Fantasy Battles is a bit more popular than 40K amongst the majority of Japanese gamers.

Originally Posted by Katharon

I live in Japan and play 40K all the time. There are several expat and Servicemen/women that play, but there is also a thriving Japanese community that plays. There is even a group of French guys that live north-west of Tokyo that make it out to events we hold. Fantasy Battles is a bit more popular than 40K amongst the majority of Japanese gamers.

Cheers man very interesting! Do you see much crossover between things like anime and mecha with 40k? Like in modelling styles

Depending on where you go, 40K and WFB are fairly popular here in Japan. There are several groups based at the various US military bases, plus local groups up and down the country. Tokyo has quite a large selection due to it's size and being home to a lot of foreign workers (and the only official GW stores). There are groups in Hiroshima (they mainly play PP games), Kyushu, Okinawa and I am a member of the group in Nagoya. Wargaming in general is nowhere near the popularity it is in the states or Europe, but if you look around for it, you should be able to find a group easily enough. Anime themed armies aren't as big a thing as you might expect, but Tau seem pretty popular. One of the players I know in Osaka has a marine army based on Hello Kitty.

Anyone know of any 40k gamers in Niigata?

Morticon over on the BnC lived in Japan for a while, I think he's in south africa now though

Originally Posted by xbenblasterx

Cheers man very interesting! Do you see much crossover between things like anime and mecha with 40k? Like in modelling styles

....no.