Much like parents in the US leaving their kids to fend for themselves in
Las Vegas casinos while they are off gambling, some Japanese parents repeat the same phenomena in pachinko parlors. Children in
Japan have died because of negligent parents playing the addictive game, including one three-year-old who was struck by a car after running into the street while her mother was in a parlor.
Pachinko ga
oya o saratte
ko o suteru
- Motoki Yu, 1996
Pachinko
abducts the parent,
throws away the child
Source: Bitoh Sanryu and Matthew Spellman, Senryu: Haiku Reflections of the Times, 1997.
mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030306p2a00m0fp005000c.html (thanks to danila for the link)