Akihabara’s Iconic Sega Arcade To Close in Tokyo

A popular arcade housed in a tall building in Tokyo's Electric Town will close its doors at the end of August 2020.

05 August 2020 | Tokyo, Japan

The Tokyo cityscape is known for many iconic landmarks: Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Tower, Sky Tree and more. But some of Tokyo’s most futuristic sights, immortalized in cyberpunk books and sci-fi films, are found in Akihabara. Dubbed Electric Town for its large variety of electronics stores, Akihabara is also an otaku (geek) haven with a plethora of anime and manga stores.

Unfortunately, one of Akihabara’s major landmarks has announced it is shutting down at the end of summer. Sega Building Two, the iconic game center with thick orange stripes on the building’s façade, will close on 30 August, 2020. Known for its retro and modern arcade games, Sega is a popular place for locals and tourists of any age to kill a few hours playing games or winning merch from UFO (claw) machines. So far, Sega hasn’t announced a reason for the closure, so we can only speculate, but the lack of tourists during the Covid-19 pandemic surely didn’t help.

Featured Buildings

SEGA Akihabara Building Number 2

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Sky Tree

Other Referenced Buildings

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Sky Tree

For more on this story, go to Time Out.