A line of children was seen forming outside the entrance to a classroom in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward slightly past 10 a.m. on a recent Sunday.

But these eager pupils did not come for a weekend cram school or tutoring in difficult school subjects.

The young ones were there to attend a children’s mah-jongg course offered twice a month by Neuron, a Tokyo-based general incorporated association, which is seeking to spread the wholesome appeal of the tile game.

Gone are the days when mah-jongg was associated with the shady image of gamblers playing it all night in smoke-filled dens.

The public perception of the game of Chinese origin is changing for the better.

It has gained so much popularity among young children as a mental sport that some children’s mah-jongg classes are mostly filled to capacity. The game has also been taken up as an optional club activity subject at one elementary school.

On the Sunday in February in Shinagawa, the seats in the classroom were up for grabs in order of arrival. A dozen automatic mah-jongg dealing tables, which packed the room, were filled by young players to capacity in the twinkling of an eye.

Elementary school pupils accounted for more than half of the attendants, who also included junior high and senior high school students as well as preschoolers. Eligible for the class are any children who “can read kanji and stay seated,” and the youngest attendee was 4.

Those who are not well-versed in the rules of mah-jongg can receive careful instructions from knowledgeable staff workers who are assigned there, one to each table.

Mah-jongg jargon was heard exchanged everywhere.

“I did it! Ron!” one of the players said.

“Oh, I was ponged with a white,” another said. “I was chowed again,” said a third.

“It’s so much fun to think about tactics,” said a fourth-grade boy at the class. “You also need luck, which is probably what’s so appealing about mah-jongg.”

CHILDREN'S CLASSES OPENING ACROSS JAPAN

Neuron opened the mah-jongg course as a social welfare program in 1997. Starting in the next year, the group has regularly been organizing children’s classes, which are currently being given in 13 classrooms across Japan.

Many children are taking the course as if mah-jongg were just another personal achievement, officials said.

Mah-jongg parlors are what comes to mind when talking about a venue for playing the game. Children under 18, however, are not allowed to set foot in mah-jongg parlors, which are covered by the Law on Control and Improvement of Amusement Business.

Neuron has created a setup for offering mah-jongg classes at cultural facilities for children.

Yuichi Ikeya, 51, Neuron’s head director, said the number of children attending the group’s classes began to grow sometime around 2010.

“They probably became familiar with mah-jongg through video games or works of manga and anime that are themed on mah-jongg,” he said.

The attendees grew further in number around the time the M.League, a professional mah-jongg league, was founded in 2018. Ikeya said he believes that prompted a spread of children’s craze for mah-jongg as an intellectual sport.

In recent years, Neuron has occasionally organized mah-jongg classes for limited times at children’s centers and cultural education centers.

Mah-jongg can be played by people of all ages, which is helping to spread the appeal of the game. Ikeya said he has seen on many occasions how elementary school pupils forged instant friendships with octogenarians and nonagenarians through mah-jongg.

“I hope more people will be playing the game, partly as a tool of communication that allows people to connect with one another at a moderate distance, and partly as a hobby or a mental sport for all generations,” he said.

OFFERED IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLUB

One elementary school has set up a mah-jongg club.

The municipal Osu Elementary School, located in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, organized a “club of wholesome mah-jongg” in the 2023 school year as a club activity option for fourth- through sixth-graders.

Three mah-jongg tables and sets of tiles were prepared, with partial assistance coming from a nonprofit organization.

Ten schoolchildren joined the club. Nine had never played mah-jongg before, but they learned enough of basic rules to play the game during the six activity sessions that were held during the year.

“The important thing in mah-jongg is to observe what is taking place on the table,” said Yoshiaki Kasahara, 39, a teacher with the school.

“Looking at the situation of your opponents to think and decide what you will be doing will certainly help you cultivate a ‘zest for living,’” he said.

Taito Ara, who was a sixth-grader at Osu Elementary School in the past school year, which ended in March, said he played mah-jongg for the first time in the club.

He said he had been previously interested in mah-jongg, which he had learned about through manga, but he felt the rules were difficult when he tried playing the game.

“But I found mah-jongg more and more fun as I looked up, and was taught about, its hands and rules,” said Taito, 12.

The youth became so absorbed in the game that he bought a set of mah-jongg tiles immediately following the first club session. He said he finds it interesting to make combinations of tiles like in a puzzle.

When Taito invites close friends to his home, he teaches them the rules of mah-jongg and lays out tiles on a desk to play games with them.

He said his family members used to have a negative image of mah-jongg and were initially worried, but they ended up sharing the fun of playing it. He now plays the game with his family members on an increasing number of holidays.

Taito got a mah-jongg table as a birthday present.

“A decent table allows a game to be played more comfortably,” he said. “I have been playing mah-jongg for a year now and I am quite into it.”

Taito left the mah-jongg club when he graduated from elementary school, but he said he will continue playing the game as a hobby and plans to attend a mah-jongg class in the future.

IN A GIRLS’ COMIC

Starting in September, Kodansha Ltd.’s Nakayosi comic magazine for girls serialized “Pon no Michi” (The way of pong), a manga about high school girls enjoying mah-jongg.

The series drew attention when the magazine came with a set of paper mah-jongg tiles as a supplement to one of its issues late last year.

Miho Iida, a Kodansha official in charge of the work, said the editorial staff members believe that some of the readers of “Pon no Michi” are probably seeing mah-jongg as just another game, of the same sort as a card game, and playing mah-jongg with their family members.

“Pon no Michi” drew a huge response from readers.

Many of their comments were about the characters being cute, but one reader said she used the supplement to try her hand at the game. Another commented that she wanted to become a good mah-jongg player herself.

“I think that both grown-ups and children find fun in horse-trading in games, including, but not limited to, mah-jongg,” Iida said.