As Tokyo Game Show closed a day early due to an approaching typhoon, Ukiyo Game Bar opened its doors to gamers and game makers in need of a dry seat and a stiff drink.
Since 2019, Ukiyo Studios has provided marketing, public relations, and business development services to game makers, working with companies like Devolver Digital and Pocketpair to showcase their games at industry conferences across the globe. On Sept. 14, the company launched its latest venture: a bar and cafe located in the middle of Tokyo’s Ginza district.
After seeing a poster advertising Ukiyo Game Bar while walking the show floor at Tokyo Game Show 2026, I knew I had to drop by, so I reached out to Ukiyo Game Bar co-founder and director On Takahashi, who was tending the bar when I visited a few days later. My drink of choice was a Tanuki Pon’s Sour, one of three indie-game-themed special cocktails the bar was serving for the week of Tokyo Game Show.
“At the events, we do really elaborate stuff. It’s fun, but it also feels very fleeting, very temporary,” Takahashi said. “So we were like, ‘you know what, let’s build a physical space where all of these cool video games that we work with can be housed 365 days a year.’”
Tucked away above a fried chicken restaurant, Ukiyo Game Bar is a cozy spot with seating for about 20, with Takahashi saying the space was packed on Sept. 21, TGS’s typhoon closure day. In addition to a fully stocked liquor shelf and a coffee machine, the bar features gaming setups and controllers arrayed around the room, each showcasing a different indie title from Ukiyo’s client portfolio. There’s a small shrine of game-industry memorabilia in the corner, with a gacha machine that Takahashi said he was planning to fill with old conference swag.
Although Ukiyo Game Bar is operating at a financial loss to start — Takahashi noted the steep costs of rent in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza neighborhood — the goal is for it to become a source of revenue for Ukiyo Studios in the long term. Ukiyo also operates an event space one floor above the bar, which currently holds a playable real-life version of the horror game Buckshot Roulette, replete with a hefty metal airsoft shotgun and a computerized table. (Customers at the bar can play the game for a fee.)
Tokyo is full of arcades, retro game bars, and other game-infused locations, but Ukiyo Game Bar represents something different and new for the city. Takahashi said the bar’s design is intentionally understated, with the goal of creating a space anyone can walk into and enjoy, gamer or not — although he also shared his plans to install flashy LED panels in the bar’s windows by next year. As a bar focused on showcasing current indie games, rather than retro games, Ukiyo Game Bar has to get the permission of the creator of every game it wants to showcase. So far, Takahashi said this hasn’t been an issue.
“Having a bar is very cool,” Takahashi said, “and everyone in Tokyo likes to be cool.”