Japan Paves the Way for E-sports with New Gaming Pro Licenses

Big news for the e-sports industry in Japan has come forward with the recent announcement that official 'Pro Licenses' are being issues from next year. Japan has in the past prevented their really strong players from making a career out of their talent due to strict gambling laws but this new initiative will seperate these "Pros" from the general public. With this news in mind, the upcoming Game Party Japan 2018 tournament (Togaiki) comes as the country's first opportunity to grant legal prize money to these professional gamers in the upcoming Tekken 7 tournament on February 10~11, 2018. Bandai Namco have currently been running their Japan Regionals competition starting with online qualifiers from this month which is leading into their finals play off in January 14 with top 3 finishers from there being granted an appearance in the GPJ 2018 tournament. There's a lot more to this to go on as the new year approaches but for now, you can read the details on these developments and the Bandai Namco support source from the Tekken 7 website:

Bandai Namco Official Tournament ≫ http://www.tk7.tekken-official.jp/special/?tab=0

▌Japanese Pro Gaming Licenses
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Big e-sports news from Japan: industry to start issuing "pro licenses" to e-sports players from 2018. Goal is to bypass Japan's strict gambling laws by separating "pros" from general public. This paves way for Japan to become e-sports powerhousehttps://t.co/HBMxPWE018

— Yuji Nakamura (@ynakamura56) December 13, 2017

Included titles:
SFV AE
Tekken 7
Winning Eleven 2018
Puzzles and Dragons
Monster Strike

Can’t wait to see Japan do it bigger! https://t.co/E4TD2CFYmp

— Ryan Harvey (@fubarduck) December 13, 2017

Tekken Project: "Grand prizes for the Tekken 7 Japan championships have been announced! Winners from the event will go on to participate in the Pro License Tokaigi tournament. Registration are currently open for the Eastern online qualifiers for the official Tekken 7 Japan Regional tournament.

鉄拳7日本王者決定戦の優勝賞品を発表しました！闘会議で行われる鉄拳7プロライセンス発行大会への出場権になります。日本王者決定戦の東日本オンライン予選受付中です！　#鉄拳7 #TEKKEN７ #日本王者決定戦 https://t.co/QdGaNKjMSZ

— 鉄拳プロジェクト@鉄拳7発売中 (@TEKKEN_Project) December 13, 2017

Tokaigi: "Tekken 7 Pro License tournament [Tokaigi 2018 TEKKEN 7 ~Break the world~] revealed!"

鉄拳7プロライセンス発行大会「闘会議2018鉄拳7～Break the world～」を開催！
日本初！新たな歴史が幕を開ける！https://t.co/ljUhktCrxl#鉄拳 #闘会議2018 #tokaigi #闘会議
©CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TEKKEN™7 &©BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc. pic.twitter.com/ht8GT6U1BQ

— 闘会議（公式） (@tokaigi) December 13, 2017