Pachinko Power

Governor Ishihara of Tokyo (age: Jurassic) has recently been re-elected for a fourth term of office. Despite having a reputation as a leading national curmudgeon and outspoken out-of-left-field commentator on almost anything, now and then he does cough up an idea that has a ring of truth to it.
Recently, he remarked that since vending machines and pachinko parlors account for the total output of a large-scale nuclear power plant, such as that lost in Fukushima – something on the order of 10 million kilowatts – the country doesn't need them any more and they should all be shut down. In layman's terms, 10 million kilowatts if lined up end to end would form a loop around the sun and back again... or the moon... something like that.
Anyway, these ARE desperate times, and Ishihara (slogan: NO!) has been making an effort to start the proverbial ball rolling by provoking a national debate on energy use.
Bloggers, such as I am, cannot merely stand by and suck our thumbs while making fun of people like Ishihara. No, we need to come up with concrete solutions to the problems of the day as well, to make a meaningful contribution to society.
It is in the interest of this process, that I, Pterosaurish, submit a simple solution (amazingly overlooked!) to the power generation problem, facing Japan even as you read this.
Pachinko.
For those of us who live in Japan, the ubiquitous pachinko parlor is like a national blight. For those outside the country, however, it may not bring anything to mind at all, so allow me to outline exactly what it is.
Pachinko is an upright pinball machine where small steels balls are sent in high volume through the machine, hopefully falling into pay-out pockets. Balls can then be cashed in for prizes which (to circumvent anti-gambling laws) can in turn be cashed in for money. According to the National Police Agency, there are some 14,600 pachinko parlors around the country. The business is improbably popular, generating 27.45 trillion yen in income per year.
"How much is that?" You ask.
Considering that the total value of all domestic auto manufacture is 19.7 trillion yen a year, you can see that it is an enormous enterprise, indeed. 70% of the pachinko industry is controlled by people of Korean ethnicity and suspicions are strong that large amounts of money skimmed from profits are sent to North Korea. Japanese love pachinko, despite the fact that the parlor atmosphere is not lively or full of pleasant energy. Players sit glumly in front of the machines, staring at the whirl of balls, maybe lost in thought or Zen mindlessness.
"So cut to the chase!" You say?
Yes. Enough background.
You see? The problem with the pachinko industry is that the machines it uses today are electricity intensive. Covered with flashing lights and small video screens, and powered by a rotating dial, they suck up power like black holes. In the old days, however, the machines had no electrical parts at all. The balls were sent their spinning way around the contraption by a thumb-activated lever.
Reverting to the old-style machines would, of course, save a lot of electricity, but saving power is not enough. This is where my plan comes in. The pachinko balls are made of steel. At 4 yen per ball (on average) in a 27 trillion-yen industry, you can imagine that there are millions of balls pouring through the machines for many hours every day in more than 14,000 locations around the country.
What we need to do is magnetize the balls. They flow from top to bottom in the machines, so they could turn a rotor by their action, powering small generators which then could be plugged into the national grid. In this way, people who sit stupidly in front of the machines could be put usefully to work. Their thumbs would get exercise and a new source of energy would be developed.