{"id":69045,"date":"2026-07-01T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=69045"},"modified":"2026-07-01T18:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:00:19","slug":"new-kaiji-film-faced-uncertainty-due-to-real-life-online-gambling-scandals-in-japan-according-to-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/new-kaiji-film-faced-uncertainty-due-to-real-life-online-gambling-scandals-in-japan-according-to-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"New\u00a0Kaiji film\u00a0faced uncertainty due to\u00a0real-life online gambling scandals in Japan, according to staff\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, TOHO revealed that Nobuyuki Fukumoto\u2019s legendary gambling manga&nbsp;<strong>Kaiji&nbsp;<\/strong>will receive a new live-action movie adaptation, titled&nbsp;<strong>Kaiji:&nbsp;Life&nbsp;Revenge Game<\/strong>.&nbsp;Scheduled to premiere in January 2027 in Japan, the film will&nbsp;be the fourth installment in the live-action Kaiji series, coming after a seven-year&nbsp;gap.&nbsp;While the announcement has been met with much excitement among fans, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tokyo-sports.co.jp\/articles\/-\/394115\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tokyo Sports<\/a>,&nbsp;the project faced headwinds at one point due to a series of&nbsp;domestic&nbsp;\u201conline casino scandals.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u6620\u753b\u300e\u30ab\u30a4\u30b8 \u4eba\u751f\u30ea\u30d9\u30f3\u30b8\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u300f\u8d85\u7279\u5831\uff5c2027\u5e741\u670829\u65e5(\u91d1)\u516c\u958b\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XlZoQh3QcZk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most forms of gambling (with exceptions like&nbsp;horse race betting and&nbsp;pachinko) are illegal in Japan, including online gambling.&nbsp;Using online casinos&nbsp;operated&nbsp;offshore&nbsp;is likewise a crime, but last year, Japan saw several&nbsp;instances of&nbsp;idols and&nbsp;celebrities&nbsp;getting caught using them. With each such scandal&nbsp;being followed by&nbsp;public&nbsp;outrage,&nbsp;\u201ccancellations,\u201d and&nbsp;the reputations of affiliated persons and brands being damaged, the issue&nbsp;grew quite heated, particularly between February and June.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Incidentally,&nbsp;Kaiji: Life Revenge Game&nbsp;entered production right after this wave of gambling-related scandals, in the summer of 2025. According to a staff member interviewed by Tokyo Sports, these&nbsp;circumstances&nbsp;lead to the decision not to&nbsp;announce or advertise the start of filming&nbsp;at all. Due to Kaiji\u2019s subject matter&nbsp;dealing with gambling, the climate on social media&nbsp;\u2013 where people had grown sensitive towards the issue of gambling addiction \u2013 made it difficult to announce the project. \u201cAmong the production staff, there was even&nbsp;concern about what would happen with the film\u2019s release,\u201d&nbsp;the respondent said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately,&nbsp;the film\u2019s announcement&nbsp;came&nbsp;the following year, on June 10, and did not encounter any&nbsp;significant friction, so this delay may have been for the better (although,&nbsp;it probably helps that Kaiji\u2019s story is anything but encouraging of gambling&nbsp;in the first place).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3056\u308f&#8230;\u3056\u308f&#8230;<\/p>&mdash; \u6620\u753b\u300e\u30ab\u30a4\u30b8 \u4eba\u751f\u30ea\u30d9\u30f3\u30b8\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u300f (@kaiji_movie) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kaiji_movie\/status\/2063909881686671677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 8, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>&#8220;Zawa&#8230;zawa&#8230;&#8221;<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fans of the original live-action Kaiji films will be happy to know that Tatsuya Fujiwara will be reprising his role as protagonist Kaiji in the new film, with Toya Sato also returning as director.&nbsp;The scenario was written by&nbsp;series producer&nbsp;Masatoshi Yamaguchi with&nbsp;assistance&nbsp;from the manga\u2019s original author Fukumoto.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kaiji.toho-movie.jp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kaiji: Life Revenge Game<\/a> is scheduled to premiere in Japan on January 29, 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The upcoming &#8220;Kaiji:\u00a0Life\u00a0Revenge Game&#8221; film started production right after a series of unfortunate scandals involving online casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":69047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-07-01T13:00:09+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mpll4qw7tq26","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mpll4qw7tq26\",\"cid\":\"bafyreieqfvvtttmqahm6espo7plv4g63lxnxp6wzn5iza32n3bajzas5g4\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreigfnvmbvnrxryaqubunojlzdncgpxkbdnkpwp6c5kgrxpehygracm\",\"rev\":\"3mpll4qwfpa26\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[73,17],"class_list":["post-69045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - 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