Best Online Slots Casinos in Japan
While pachinko is still number one in Japan, more and more Japanese people are playing slots too. Because pachinko is purely a mechanic game, online pachinko games are not popular. This leaves a gap online for simple gambling games, which online slots have filled. If you want to learn more about online gaming slots in Japan, where you can play them and how you can claim online slots bonuses, then you’re in the right place!
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Best Online Slots Japan Sites Per Category
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Moves are being made to legalize casino betting in Japan and while signs that casino play will eventually become legal are good, getting the necessary legislation through the Japanese parliament is not going to happen overnight. Until then, playing online gaming slots at sites based in Japan remains illegal.
The happy news for people in Japan is that playing at an online casino site in Japan that operates outside of Japan is not something that you are likely to be prosecuted for. We have selected several slots sites we deem suitable for slots fans in Japan, but how do we make our decisions?
Below is a list of the criteria we check when we ascertain any casino’s worthiness.
- Slots Available – We like a lot of slots to be available, but we don’t like sites that simple flood their online casinos with poor-quality games. Fortunately, we know more than enough about online slots to be able to distinguish between good online gaming slots and bad online gaming slots, and we only champion sites that have much more of the former than they do of the latter!
- Game Providers – Just like better quality slots, there are better quality slots providers too. Stand-out names in this arena include NetEnt, Play’n GO, Pragmatic Play, Microgaming, Betsoft, Habanero and Big Time Gaming. The more slots a site has from these behemoths of the slotting arena, the better!
- New Slots – Unlike casino games, new slots are released into the casino wild all of the time. They feature new game mechanics, motifs, ways of winning, graphics and sound and interesting new aspects. The best sites are kept up to date so that they always have the very best slots available, and all the latest new hits.
- Bonuses and Promotions – You might be surprised to learn that we do not think that the bonuses and promotions a site provides is the most important aspect. Sure, it’s always good to get a bonus but some sites go overboard on bonuses and such bonuses are practically worthless. We much prefer sites that release a steady stream of worthwhile bonuses as opposed to a continual flood of worthless ones.
- Ease of Use – One of the best things about any top site on our list is that it is easy to use, and that goes for mobile as well as desktop. There is no way that any online slot site in Japan should have you reaching for the manual every couple of minutes. They should be easy to use from the get-go with decent menus, an amazing site design, and excellent levels of support.
Why Play Online Slots?
The main reason that people in Japan play online slots is that it’s the closest to pachinko they will get online. The main entertainment value of pachinko is the sound of those little silver balls running all through the pachinko machine and into the payout tray ready to be loaded in again or collected and taken to the prize booth. Companies have tried to replicate this with online versions, but it’s like playing an online version of pinball or air hockey … oddly unsatisfying.
Slots used to be purely mechanical too. The reels and equipment were once all machine parts, with computer chips making their entrance in the late 1970s. In Las Vegas, though the mechanics of the slot were replaced by video screens and a circuit board. ‘Video Slots’ as they were known were born and became extremely popular. Online slots are versions of these video slots, but with much better graphics and features.
The best thing about online slots when compared to other casino games is the tremendous variation. One online slot can be quite unlike the one next to it – reels, symbols, bonus games, side games, and payouts. You could play a different slot every hour of every day for an entire year and no two slots would be the same. Sure, they’d be similarities, but each slot is unique.
Slots have decent return-to-player rates of around 95 to 96 percent. This is less than blackjack and European roulette but better than American roulette and most versions of casino poker. The main benefit of slots is that you don’t have to pay a lot to win a lot, necessarily. Even a small stake can win you a fortune if you hit the jackpot, and could even make you a millionaire if you are playing a slot with a progressive jackpot. You don’t get that with blackjack!
Online Slots Real Money Variation
Slots are slots, but they are not ‘just’ slots. Just like there are several versions of blackjack and poker, there are multiple types of slot games online available. Below we will describe all the most common types of slots at online slots Japan sites, and where you can play them.
We have already explained that every slot has some kind of ‘unique’ factor, but slots can be divided into several categories. Here are the most common types of categories of slots, with an explanation of why any particular slot may fit into this category.
Classic slots
Classic slots will be familiar to pachinko players. The arrangement of the reels in a classic slot is the same as the bonus game in most versions of pachinko and the mechanics are the same – get three identical symbols (or some other winning combo) across the middle of the reels and you’ve won.
These types of slots actually originated in the US and moved to the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. In Australia and New Zealand they are known as ‘pokies’ which is short for ‘poker machines’. They are still popular in the US, but they have largely been supplanted by video slots. 1xbet is a great site for classic slots.
Video slots
The next generation of slots are called video slots, and most online slots are software-based versions of the same kind of slots that have been seen in Las Vegas and elsewhere now for several years. The mechanics of a classic slot were replaced with a computer, and the reels by a video screen.
Video slots have extra dimensions that classic slots simply cannot match. Usually, they have a minimum of five reels as opposed to three. They also have multiple paylines instead of just the single pay line across the center of the reels. Other upgrades include wild symbols, scatter symbols, and bonus games. Our number one MyBookie has plenty of video slots.
Progressive jackpot slots
Progressive jackpot slots pre-date the internet. In Vegas, the company known as SIRCOMA used radio to link several real-world video slots together. These slots would share a jackpot that was created by retaining a small amount from every wager played on the slot. This jackpot would then build and build in magnitude.
A very rare combination of symbols would then trigger the jackpot. Most progressive jackpot slots would pay out every few months or so, but one once went twenty years without paying! Progressive jackpot slots are now found online too, with Microgaming’s Mega Moolah being the most famous having made several people very rich! Check out 22bet for progressive jackpot slots.
Themed Slots
Franchise or themed slots seem to be more popular than slots that are based on an original concept. That stands to reason – if someone is a fan of, say, Game of Thrones, then they are more likely to play a Game of Thrones slot than one that does not promise that a ‘jackpot is coming’.
There are a significantly greater number of non-themed slots than themed ones, although the reason for that is probably easy to understand as acquiring the license to brand slots with a TV show, movie, or video game is probably a little expensive. Themed slots remain very popular, though. Conquestador has a lot of themed slots.
All Ways Pay Slots
When playing online slots for the first time players can become a little confused with the ‘pay lines’ concept. If a slot has 30 paylines you are not going to be able to memorize them all! This means that a symbol combo that appears that looks like it is going to trigger a win does not do so.
You can forget about paylines when it comes to an ‘all ways pay’ slot. You just have to get identical symbols in sequence on successive reels, usually starting from the left-hand reel. Which row each symbol appears on is immaterial. A slot with five reels and three rows will have 243 possible paylines, which is three raised to a power of five. BetOnline is bloated with all ways to pay slots.
Megaways slots
Big Time Gaming one day decided to up the ante when it comes to an ‘all ways pay’ slot and apply the concept they called ‘Megaways’ to their Bonanza slot. The main idea was that when a reel landed, the reel could have any number of symbols upon it from two to seven. Each spin produced a different combo and a different number of winning paylines.
This idea proved so popular that Big Time Gaming started applying it to their other slots. Other slot developers soon saw how popular Megaways slots became and asked Big Time Gaming if they could lease the concept from them. BTG agreed, for a suitable fee of course, and now there are many dozens of Megaways slots to play across multiple online slots casinos. Look for megaways slots at Wazamba.
Cluster Pays Slots
A cluster pays slots has completely different mechanics to a video slot, and indeed a cluster pays slot does not look like a video slot at all. Instead of reels, the symbols fall into a playing grid. The idea is to create clusters of identical symbols – a cluster is a group of symbols that are touching horizontally or vertically (not diagonally).
A cluster pays slot has a much bigger screen than your normal video slot. Unlike cluster games such as Bejeweled you cannot move the symbols when they fall – it’s all down to luck. One nice feature of such cluster games though is that when symbols form a winning combo they vanish and leave more clusters to fall down and fill their place, potentially triggering new clusters. Mega Pari is a good choice for cluster pays slots.
How To Play Online Slots
If you are in Japan and you have been brought up on pachinko then casino online slots must be something that looks a little familiar to you, but you still may need a little help in playing them. Here is a quick and easy guide to how to play an online slot:
The first thing you need to know is how a specific game plays. All slots will have instructions attached, and usually the instructions are quite detailed (because they have to be). Read the rules to make sure you know what you are doing.
- Select from our list of the best slots sites in Japan and complete your sign-up. Don’t forget to claim any bonuses you may be entitled to!
- You can usually play any slot in Japan for free, but of course, if you play for free you will not win anything! To win money you have to pay money, so make a deposit.
- Pick a slot you like the look of – NetEnt’s Starburst is a good place to start. Try out a few free spins if you can, and read the instructions or at least take a look at the paytable.
- Choose your stake. If this is the first time you have played slots in Japan then it is best to start with as low stakes as possible. You can increase your wagers if you become more comfortable playing them.
- Hit that spin button to get the reels spinning! If you win – hurrah! If you lose, then never fear, hit the spin button again. Keep playing until you’ve won enough to be happy with, or you have lost as much as you are comfortable losing!
Online Slots Machine Developers
Casino online slots sites in Japan do not make their slots. They lease slots from developers and host them on their sites. Some developers are much better than others. Here are five of the best slots developers available in the world today.
NetEnt
NetEnt have long been regarded as the best slot developers in the business, although there are currently more threats to NetEnt’s crowd at the moment than there have evern been. This Swedish firm has created countless classics but has struggled since 2020. Their games are still always worth checking out, though. Best Games: Gonzo’s Quest, Starburst, Finn’s Swirly Spin.
Play’n GO
Play’n GO’s one of those companies that are threatening the wrest NetEnt’s crown from them. This company is also based in Sweden and they have become one of the most prolific slots developers in the business, releasing 50 games in 2020 alone. Despite the high number of slots they produce, Play’n Go’s slots are always high quality. Best Games: Gemix, Reactoonz, Rich Wilde & the Book of Dead.
Microgaming
This Isle of Man-based company are famed for their progressive jackpot slots, but that is not the only kind of slot they create. A genuine behemoth in the online casino world for over 20 years, these days the company hands slot development off to any one of several subsidiary companies they own, including Stormcraft Studios and All41 Studios. Best Games: Immortal Romance, Mega Moolah, Major Millions.
Pragmatic Play
Pragmatic Play have really risen in the ranks since their creation in 2015. They take a two-pronged approach to online slots casino software development – slots and live casinos games. This company excels in both although their slots do not quite match the quality of many of their developers. They have still made plenty of superb titles, though. Best Games: Wolf Gold, The Dog House, Sweet Bonanza.
Online Slot Bonuses and Free Spins
When you sign up for an account at a casino online slots site in Japan they should offer you some kind of bonus. Using a bonus is a great way of becoming accustomed to online casino slots as you are not using your own money! Here we explain a little about the most common forms of bonuses offered.
No deposit bonuses – Now not very common, a no deposit bonus is one that you receive if you complete your sign-up at a site. You do not need to make your deposit to receive it. No deposit bonuses – when offered – usually come with unfriendly wagering requirements.
Deposit bonus – The most common type of bonus. A 100 percent deposit bonus will match any deposit you make with the same amount of bonus money. So, if you make a ¥5,000 deposit at an online casino, you will receive ¥5,000 in bonus money. You may get 200 percent or 50 percent deposit bonuses too. Your deposit and bonus is likely to be subject to wagering conditions.
Free spins – This type of bonus is simply free online slot spins. It could be several free spins on a specific slot, on a small selection of slots, or on any slot offered by the casino offering the bonus. Your free online slot spins winnings are usually subject to … you’ve guessed it …wagering conditions!
Wagering conditions – So, here we go, an explanation about the dreaded wagering conditions. If a bonus comes with wagering of 35 x deposit + bonus, then you will need to place wagers totaling 35 times the value of your deposit and bonus combined. So, if your bonus is ¥5,000, then your wagering is ¥350,000. We are aware this is the amount you need to wager, not spend.
Game contributions – Not every game contributes the same when it comes to wagering. Slots, keno and scratch cards usually contribute in full. Online slots casino games like blackjack may only contribute 10 percent or even less. If a game has a 10 percent contribution then a ¥100 wager on it will only remove ¥10 from your wagering.
Time limit – You cannot hang onto your bonus forever. From the point of your registration you will have a limited period to claim your bonus, and once claimed there will be a time limit to your wagering. If you fail to complete your wagering in time your bonus and any winnings made so far are forfeited.
Winnings cap – You may find that your bonus has a winnings cap. A winnings cap of ¥500,000 means that should you win ¥750,000, then ¥250,000 of it is forfeited.
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When you are looking at offers you should always look for deals that have low wagering requirements. Anything above 40x is really wasting your time. Because slots are so volatile, if you have to wager 40 times your deposit and/or bonus, you are unlikely to come out of the other side with much to show for your wagering!
Anything between 30x and 40x is decent. Make sure you check to see if wagering applies to your bonus/deposit or your bonus and deposit. Wagering of 30x on deposit + bonus is the same as 60x wagering on deposit or bonus only.
Best Payout Slots
As we have already mentioned slots are notoriously volatile. Most people play slots with the hope of winning a big jackpot as opposed to a long stream of steady wins as with blackjack or roulette. On any slot spin, there is much less than a 50/50 chance that your spin will be a winning one.
Some slots though do pay out more often than others, and you can judge the generosity of any slot by looking at its payout rate, or ‘RTP’. RTP stands for ‘return to player’ and measures how much of a player’s original bankroll is likely to remain after a prolonged playing session. If you start a session with ¥10,000 and the slot has an RTP of 96 percent then you should have ¥9,600 remaining at the end. Of course, this is all just theoretical.
You should easily be able to find out the RTP of any slot that you are considering taking for a spin. Stick to slots with RTPs above 95 percent and the higher the RTP, the better!
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Slots are ideal for mobile play. Slots look good on the small screen – unlike say blackjack or roulette where you might struggle to see the values of the cards or where you have placed your chips on the roulette table. Operating a slots on a small screen is easy too – just select your stake and hit the spin button.
Go back a decade or so and most slots were created using Adobe’s Flash software. This was fine for a while until Apple discovered security flaws with Flash and banned Flash from iOS-based devices leaving iPhone and iPad users left in the mobile slotting wilderness!
The days of Flash have now passed and 99.9 percent of all slots these days are now created using the mobile-friendly HTML5. Slots games online are low in byte size which means they can be embedded easily within websites, ready to be downloaded temporarily when the slot is opened via the site’s slotting pages. Why not visit your favorite mobile online slot casino and play some of our recommended mobile slots right now.
Free Casino Slot Games
In Japan, you should be able to take any slot game hosted by an international online casino site for as many free online slots spins as you want. This is limited in other jurisdictions (such as the UK) but if you are in Japan you are playing at international sites, so you should not face a problem.
Free casino slot games are fantastic if you are not used to playing online slots as you can get used to seeing how the slot functions before you part with any of your own money. The only downside is that you might land a big jackpot … of play money!
Of course, if you play casino slot games for free then you will nothing from them. You can only win play money, and you can only win online slots real money if you play slots for real money, of course!
Our Expert Tips To Improve Your Experience Playing Online Casino Slots
You may have played slots before and found they left you cold. If that is the case, then you were probably playing the wrong slots, or you were not persevering enough to get the most out of them. If you are intent on giving slots a section chance, then here are some expert tips that we hope will improve your experience this time around.
1. Try Different Types of Slots
How many slots do you think there are? Probably a few thousand by now. Modern slots are also much better than old-fashioned ones. Try a slot and if you don’t like it, then move on to a different one.
Perhaps it is the game dynamic that is leaving you cold. If you are not enjoying classic slots then choose video slots, all ways pay slots or cluster pays slots. Keep going and you are bound to find something that appeals to you eventually!
2. Look at the RTPs
It is much more to your benefit to play slots with high RTPs than lower ones. The volatility of any slot means that anything is possible when it comes to finishing in the black or the red after a slotting session, but if you stick to slots with high RTPs then you are more likely to end up on top.
The only exception to this rule is with slots with progressive jackpots, as having a jackpot lowers their RTPs. Only play such slots if you want a chance of winning a life-changing amount of cash.
3. Use Bonus Offers
Bonus money is not just a case of getting something for free. They have a double benefit – you get to test out a slot using bonus money without risking any of your own cash, and there is always the chance once you have completed the wagering that you won money without spending a single yen!
Always hunt around for bonus offers and stick to sites that offer bonus offers regularly. A regular stream of bonuses is always something good!
4. Don’t play unless you are 100%
Let’s be honest, you do not need a super-high IQ to play casino slots online. As games go they are pretty mindless – you just hit the spin button and the reels so they work.
Because you do not have to overstretch your brain when playing slots they can become a little hypnotic, which means you could end up spending more money on them than you mean to, especially if you hit a losing streak. You are more prone to do this if you are less than 100 percent, so never play casino slots online if you are in a bad mood or have had a little too much to drink, for example.
5. Have a Bankroll Management Plan
Slots should only ever be played for entertainment purposes with the side aspect of perhaps winning you a little bit of extra cash. The money you spend on slots online should have no other impact on any other aspect of your financial life.
Work out how much spare cash you have left after all the important considerations in life – rent, food, utilities, time spent with friends, and so on. This should give you a good idea of how much money you can spend playing casino slots online.
Online Slots Casinos Japan Summary
Online slots in Japan style are becoming increasingly popular. With so many great providers and excellent online casino slot machines, players in Japan have never had it so good when it comes to online casino slots. They are entertaining, and they give you the chance of winning cash! We hope this guide has served you well when it comes to online slots Japan players can enjoy, and we wish you the best of luck.
With casinos on the way in Japan, online slots casinos are becoming increasingly popular in the country and so are online slots … at least they are until someone invents the authentic online pachinko machine! Seriously though, slots online are very entertaining and are a great way of hopefully winning a little cash on the side or, if you are really lucky, an amazing progressive jackpot. We hope this guide has caused you to be a little more interested in online casino slots than you previously were, and good luck!
FAQs
Are online slot game Japan sites safe and secure to use?
If you use the ones mentioned here you will be fine. Always check to see if any online slots site you intend to use has a decent licence.
Am I able to play free slots games online in Japan?
You should be fine. Just remember that you’ll never win a single yen playing slots for free!
What’s the paytable for an online slot?
It’s a list of all winning combiantions of symbols, and how much you win in relation to your stake.
Are slots online genuinely random?
Not completely. Computers cannot pick random numbers out of the air like humans can. However, all slots online are tested for randomness by independent bodies before they are released to make sure they reach acceptible levels of randomness.
Which game is the best online casino slot?
Classic top games include Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest and Immortal Romance, but it really is best that you look round online slots sites in Japan so that you can make up your own mind!
Peter is an experienced iGaming wordsmith who has been working in the industry since 2013. He has written more words on all aspects of iGaming than he cares to remember, and has provided content for many big industry names. When not writing Peter can be found out running or gaming on his Xbox. Peter’s articles have been featured in numerous high-profile online publications such as www.rightcasino.com and www.whichbingo.co.uk