You feed a cabinet in a Japanese game center, pick East-only, and the matchmaker fills the table from arcades across the country. Sometimes one of the three names belongs to a working pro, playing the same online game you are. Konami says so on its own site. Its pros play the online matches regularly, and if you draw one, that's the pro themself at another cabinet.
Two companies run this. The Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML) sanctions Konami's Mahjong Fight Club (麻雀格闘倶楽部). Sega's MJ draws its pros from four other organizations. Everything below comes from their official sites, as of October 23, 2026.
Two cabinets, both from 2002
Konami's October 2025 release dates the Mahjong Fight Club series to 2002 and calls UNION its first major version in three years. It runs in arcades and on Konami's Konasute service for Windows, Android, and iOS. UNION also adopted . Konami's play guide adds an exam you take on the cabinet for a JPML-certified . Pass at 1-dan or above and you can apply on the e-amusement site for a certificate issued by the league. Konami says its 5-dan can't be earned anywhere else.
Sega's MJ goes back to the same year. Game Watch reported on the first MJ cabinet at Sega's private show in July 2002. It drew the densest crowd on the floor, partly because a game takes a while and some players kept hitting continue. Today's version is MJ Arcade, and the official site lists the four groups its pros come from: my own Japan Professional Mahjong Association (日本プロ麻雀協会, NPM), the Saikouisen (最高位戦日本プロ麻雀協会), RMU, and Mahjong Rengou (麻将連合, Mahjong Federation).
| Konami | Sega | |
|---|---|---|
| Current arcade version | Mahjong Fight Club UNION (October 15, 2025) | MJ Arcade |
| Series began | 2002 | 2002 |
| Pros from | Japan Professional Mahjong League (日本プロ麻雀連盟) | Japan Professional Mahjong Association (日本プロ麻雀協会), Saikouisen, RMU, Mahjong Rengou |
| How pros appear | Regular online play, plus scheduled event sessions | A monthly lineup at the pro table |
| Who can meet them | Any mode, league, or rank, outside events | 10-dan and above, 10:00 to 24:00 |
How Konami puts a pro at your table
Konami runs a live page that shows how many pros are playing right now, with a push alert in its e-amusement app when one logs in. Outside events, the page says, a pro can match you in any mode, league, or rank. A beginner in the East-only queue can draw the same pro as a league regular.
For a guaranteed sighting, Konami runs the Shin Kouryuu Tougijou (真黄龍闘技場, True Yellow Dragon Arena). It's for players at Kouryuu (黄龍, Yellow Dragon) rank or above, and more Kouryuu orbs are at stake than in a normal game. The page says league pros join every session. October 2026 had three. The last is three-player, on Friday, October 30. The Arena's schedule page posts each month's dates, so check it before you go.
| Date | Format |
|---|---|
| Saturday, October 10 | East-only |
| Tuesday, October 20 | |
| Friday, October 30 | Three-player |
That schedule gives dates, not hours. Some of Konami's other pro events do. Its 2026 JPML vote event scheduled every listed pro on the East-only knockout table (ノックアウト卓) in two-hour slots from August 28 to September 13.
There's also a way to play a pro who isn't there. Konami's ten-game challenge against the pros (プロ雀士に挑戦!! 十番勝負) sets you against the actual point records of the top ten pros in each format. Beat the 10th-place pro's record and the 9th unlocks.
How Sega seats a pro at the pro table
Sega puts its pros at the pro table. The mode page sets the gate. Its East-only, three-player, and pro tables open from 10:00 to 24:00, and only to players at 10-dan or above. Below 10-dan you play the general table, which has no hanchan at all.
The schedule is a monthly roster. For October 2026, Sega's pro schedule lists four pros at the East-only pro table, one at hanchan, and four at three-player, all for the whole month. Ide Yosuke (井出洋介) is among the East-only names. The page says the pros themselves join the pro table, and that the lineup can change without notice. It gives no hours. Check it at the start of each month for the current names.
Sega also names up to three nintei janshi (認定雀士, certified players) per pro table, and has since February 2024. The conditions include a paid MJ.NET membership, play at the pro table, an upper dan with a rating of 1800 or more, and an age of 20 or older.
Some modes pay chips the way a parlor does. These (祝儀) chips come on top of the score, and the chip page lists one for , one per or red five, two per gold , and five for a . Three-player follows Sega's own rules for North and tsumo payments, which the sanma guide compares with Tenhou's.
What a game costs
Neither company's play guide prints a yen price. On Sega's cabinets you buy game points (GP) with credits, and each store decides how many GP a credit buys. The GP price of a game is fixed, as Sega's game point page shows. It also depends on time-over. With time-over on, your thinking-time bank rises and falls with your score, and a hand that ends with it empty costs more credits. With time-over off, the bank refills every hand.
| Mode | Time-over | Start | After 2nd | After 3rd/4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East-only, 3P | On | 300 | 150 | 300 |
| East-only, 3P | Off | 500 | 250 | 500 |
| Hanchan | On | 500 | 250 | 500 |
| Hanchan | Off | 700 | 350 | 700 |
Win and the next game costs nothing. Finish 2nd and it's half price. Maru-Jan does the same online: take 1st and your next game is free. New players get their first game free when they register a card or phone, at arcades that offer the service.
On Konami's side, the one flat-rate product is a store day ticket on its high-grade cabinets. Buy one and you can play the event mode you picked as much as you like at that arcade until closing.
Where to find a cabinet in Osaka
Sega's store finder listed 20 arcades in Osaka Prefecture with MJ Arcade on October 23, 2026. In the city center that includes a GiGO (GiGO難波アビオン) and an AM Factory (AMファクトリーアクス) in Namba, plus two GiGO branches in Umeda: GiGO Higashi-Umeda (GiGO東梅田) and GiGO Osaka Dai-4 Building (GiGO大阪第4ビル). Sega's own note says the list comes from network connections and doesn't promise the latest version, so check before you travel.
If you want to meet a pro, Konami is the easier door. A beginner can draw one, while Sega makes you reach 10-dan first. Konami runs a separate store search on its e-amusement site.
At an arcade you play strangers from all over Japan on a touch screen. You pay in game points and play for rank, and the pro, if one shows up, is just a username. For real tiles in your hands, the Osaka parlor guide covers the no-rate shops in the same neighborhoods.
When the pro declares riichi
You'll most likely meet that pro the usual way. The drops a stick on turn 7, and your hand isn't ready. Better to have your answer before you sit down. The push-or-fold tool gives a verdict for your hand shape, value, turn, and seat, read from simulated push/fold charts for Houou-level hanchan, so in East-only treat its verdict as a starting point. Run your own common spots through it, then go find the pro.
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