I heard some time ago that the Nihon Ki-in had a very bad year in 2009. I have now seen some figures.

The background as I understand it is that the Nihon Ki-in enjoyed a bubble of prosperity along with the rest of the Japanese economy, but a decline set in around 1990, and by 1994 it went into the red. This poor situation drifted on for a decade before it was tackled seriously.

The task was taken on by a professional business, Chairman Okabe Hiromu, who was a director of the ad agency Denso (of Toyota & Denso fame). Under his guidance staff was pruned and pros' allowances were severely cut (the ending of the Oteai). In 2006 the Nihon Ki-in was back in the black to the tune of a modest 5 million yen. That was sustained in 2007, and in 2008 the surplus increased to 20 million yen. (Roughly, 1 million = US$11,700 = 9,000 Euros = £7,500)

However, there was a dark cloud hanging over the Ki-in. Its favourable tax status as a non-profit charity organisation was (and is) under threat because of legislative changes requiring a higher burden of proof that an organisation's activities are genuinely for the common weal. Okabe tried to address this by introducing some sort of points system where pros scored points for teaching the public or otherwise disseminating the game. The pros' "trade union" (the Kishi-kai) resisted this and Okabe resigned.

The immediate upshot was that the budget nosedived back into the red, under the chairmanship of now a pro, Otake Hideo, rather than a businessman. The loss in 2009 was 12 million yen and in 2010 it is projected to be 27 million yen. This is with an annual turnover of some 4,500 million yen.

This does not mean that Otake had dropped the ball, of course. In fact he has just been re-elected for a further two years. His tenure occurred during the worldwide economic meltdown. The most noticeable loss has been in publishing. The belief is that, as the older generation that was used to buying books is dying off, the newer generation is not replacing them. However, internet business, presumably bolstered mostly by the new generation, is in profit.

There is also the point that reforms instituted by Otake have yet to work their way through. In particular (perhaps because he is a pro, too), he appears to have got the members to accept that there has to be more work done to justify charitable status. An 80 million yen outreach budget has been set aside for teaching throughout the country, and this allocation seems set to grow.

I'm sure we all hope they succeed. A Japanese pro who could win an international title or two would also no doubt help!

I post this partly as a salutary reminder to would-be European pros. It seems that outreach and teaching are the sine qua non of a pro's existence everywhere. The right to play in tournaments for money has to be built on that platform.

Pros exist at the top of the go pyramid to be role models for those underneath. It's not possible to support a lot of pros at the top unless there are more and more amateur players at the base of the pyramid. So pros really need to think about how to expand the popularity of their source of livelihood by seeking ways to spread the game to the masses and to increase the number of people who fall in love with the game.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

A 0.6% deficit is not very large in my eyes so it would have to be taken as a serious warning to take action rather than a total collapse. It's a bit ironic that the Japanese pros are being urged to do more to spread the game. Overall the Japanese have done more than anyone else to spread the game in the world. But I guess they are talking about spreading it in Japan. I think some effort is needed to make the game more appealing to young people. Hikaru no Go did well but it seems its effect has waned. From what I know about modern Japanese youth culture (not very much) the more things can be made to work through social networking the better. Hanekomu's ideas seem good, to me for a start. I heard that Amazon.com thinks its sales of electronic "books" will outpace its sales of books printed on paper in the near future. Electronic publication of go "books" could save a lot of money in printing, storage costs, and shipping cost.

It's time for a HnG sequel!

They've had cell phone play and tsumego support from their web page for a while. The iPhone is really not all that popular there that it's worth making a special app for it.

http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/joho/gobilec ... /index.htm

I really hope they realize that the way out of the slump is not abandoning the New York Go Center along with Iwamoto Kaoru's (Honinbo Kunwa) wishes in donating the building for this purpose. Even if the building itself absolutely must be sold (a tragedy), support for the Center must continue.

LOL! right

I hope Nihon Kiin will make it through..

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My personal go blog. Covering tournaments, tsumegos, and interesting games http://unlimitedgo.blogspot.com