Pokemon Go hasn’t even arrived in Japan yet, but the government is already concerned for its citizens’ safety when it does.
Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga has said that the government wants players to keep to guidelines issued by a government agency that ensures incident readiness and cybersecurity.
The agency has released a one page flier warning players about issues from heatstroke to scams. It also includes practical advice, like a warning to take battery packs along because of the amount of power the game sucks up. In all it includes nine tips, meant to keep citizens safe while they play the game.
Pokemon Go is still yet to actually arrive in Japan – developers Niantic are releasing it very slowly to try and minimise overload on its already strained servers. Players can already play the game using workarounds but can’t get it legitimately through the Japanese app stores.
A report suggested that the game was going to finally be released on Wednesday. That turned out to be false, with some reports suggesting it had been delayed because the leak had shown Niantic just how much demand there was for the game.
That left gamers in Akihabara, Tokyo's center for all things tech, still pining to start catching Pokemon in their neighborhoods.
"There are people who have achieved a high score abroad, so I hope it gets released in Japan soon," 16-year-old Souta Horime said.
The game was launched two weeks ago in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and is available in more than 20 countries, mostly in Europe and North America.
The developer, Niantic, has not announced a release date for Japan. McDonalds Japan, though, said in a brief statement late Wednesday that it is collaborating with "Pokemon Go" and that the project will be launched soon.
Motomasa Takahashi, 21, said he would be careful playing the game, after seeing reports of accidents related to it. A driver who crashed into another car in Fall City, Washington, in the U.S., reportedly told authorities he was distracted by the game.
Takahashi said he was fascinated with the game and unhappy that it has been already released elsewhere but not in Japan, even though it is the birthplace of Pokemon.
Serkan Toto, a games industry consultant in Tokyo, said Pokemon itself may be Japanese in origin, but "Pokemon Go" is an American-developed game with a Japanese character or characters layered on it. He also pointed to reports that fears of server outages, which have disrupted the game elsewhere, may be delaying the release.
"Nowhere in the world are the mobile gamers, the end consumers, as critical as in Japan. In the U.S., people are accustomed to slow networks, to server outages," he said.
Naoki Sakuraba, 21, saw a silver lining in the delay. He is anticipating that Japanese fans will get an improved version of the game as technological glitches reported in other countries are repaired.
REF: techcrunch.com, independent.co.uk, japantimes.co.jp, cnet.com, marketwatch.com