Service Games, Japan
From Sega Retro
This teeny-tiny article needs some work. You can help us by expanding it.
Service Games, Japan was the second branch of Service Games to be opened, following Service Games, Hawaii in 1945. Built on a distribution venture headded by Richard Stewart, the company came into fruition in February 1952 after mechanic Raymond Lemaire was sent from Service Games, Hawaii to explore the possibility of distributing coin-operated arcade games to post-War US military bases in Asia.
Strictly speaking the Japanese branch was operated by the the pair's partnership company, Lemaire & Stewart, however traded under the Service Games, Japan name (and occasionally Japan Service Games).
US gambling laws had caused many problems for the Hawaiian Service Games, but Service Games, Japan was far more successful in its endeavours, being able to create its own factories and distribution centres and essentially its own products, starting with Sega Bell slot machines, the first to use the abbreviated "Sega" (Service Games) name.
Service Games, Japan was dissolved in May 1960, where it was replaced by two new companies; Nihon Goraku Bussan (distribution company trading as "Ultimatic Inc.") and Nihon Kikai Seizo (manufacturing company trading as "Sega, Inc.").