Game Market 2020 Spring cancelleation announcement.

We hereby accounce that fair Game Market 2020 Spring, that was to be held on the 25th and 26th of April this year, has been officially cancelled.

There are no words to describe how sorry we are for all those people who have spent money and time in order to prepare for this fair, or to all those people who have taken work leave, who looked forward to and bought train tickets to come to the fair. We sincerely apologize for our inability to repair this situation.

After we were forced to cancel Game Market 2020 Osaka, we have spent a tremendous time with the Tokyo Municipality and various concerned parties, to be able to hold the Tokyo Game Market Spring as planned. However, though none of these concerned parties has actually requested us to cancel, as of the writing date of March 24th, we have not been able to reach a position where we feel that we can with a guaranteed certainty hold the fair as planned. We imagined that if we say so at least one month in advance, everyone who has prepared will still be able to mitigate the damage, and we did not want to take the risk of having to cancel just one or two weeks in advance. Hence the decision. It was not an easy one to make.

We had various other plans in mind, like holding the fair under specific circumstances, such as everyone needed a mask, checking body temperatures on entry, alco-gel and hand-washing positioned everywhere around the halls, setting the ventilation on max, opening all shutters, doing away with the morning queues, having shift-entries, forbidding test-playing and so on, but in the end, if we would have to do all that, the fair would rob itself of the original intent to provide a space where people can come, play, and feel welcome. It simply would not become a decent Game Market.

But the most decisive reason was that we did not want to take the risk of throwing board games and board gamers in the mud. If, by any reason, Japan or Tokyo would overshoot a certain level of contamination just before or just after Game Market, it and board gamers would become an immediate target for complaints and claims, which in turn could severely damage the entire board game market in Japan. One of Game Market’s main purposes is to spread the joy of board games, and anything that would cast a shadow of mistrust over this hobby, would be devastating for all of us.

We fully understand that it’s immensely painful to cancel at this point. We truly do. But in order to enjoy games in 5 or 10 years to come, this is unfortunately a step we need to take, an ordeal where we need to persevere.

We hope that you can, as difficult as the situation is, to understand this. We will try to assist all those who have printed games now that they won’t be able to sell properly. Exhibitor fees will be repaid OR changed into an exhibit right for next Game Market. For details, please refer to the information in Japanese.

We understand that you might have questions and comments, but please understand that we have no chance of discussing details with individual email. We will keep you informed on this website, twitter and via emails to exhibitors.

Gamemarket team.