Shenmue

Japanese Ludiquity: Spatial Reframing of Play in Japan

This paper by Vincenzo Idone Cassone, presented at DiGRA 2022, examines how Japanese cultural and historical developments reshaped the spatial and temporal frames of play, and how these changes helped lay groundwork for the broader global process of "ludicization," the blurring of boundaries between play and everyday life.

• The paper argues that Japan's play contexts, including arcades, game centers, entertainment districts, and theme parks, gained autonomy in relation to time and space from the late 1970s onward, challenging the traditional view of play as a bounded, separate, unproductive activity.
• The author contends that ludicization (the blurring of play and everyday life) is usually framed as a Western phenomenon dating to roughly twenty years ago, whereas Japan's influence on this process has received little systematic scholarly attention.
• The study identifies arcades, home consoles, cosplay, gacha systems, and otaku behavior as key Japanese game-related cultural practices that shaped the spatial and social boundaries of play.