People always ask the guys at Impact Games where they get all of their crazy ideas for custom guns. The answer is simple, ARMS Magazine. ARMS Magazine is the premier airsoft publication in the world. It is the best way to see the newest guns and accessories available. All of the major airsoft companies such as Tokyo Marui, Western Arms, PDI, and Laylax showcase their new products in ARMS Magazine. True it’s all in Japanese, but like most other popular men’s magazines all you need to do is look at the pictures. Joking aside, the magazine is fairly easy to understand with colorful graphs and charts showing performance upgrades, shot groupings, step by step disassembly and modification guides. ARMS is by far the best source of information for airsofters.
 

ARMS Magazine Editor Haruka Nakajima

Early issue of ARMS Magazine

ARMS Magazine first came out in ”February of 1988“ says editor Haruka Nakajima. But prior to that, ”Hobby Japan had articles on gunsmith.“ The articles proved so popular that ”Hobby Japan then produced an extra book called GUNSMITH, which was the beginning of Arms Magazine.“

The amount of space allotted for airsoft was minimal. ”All the news and articles on airsoft could not be inserted in Hobby Japan Magazine so another magazine needed to be created dedicated for airsoft.“ Hiroyuki Okazaki, an employee at Hobby Japan, was given the task to put together the first issue of ARMS. Back then, ”there was not a large variety of airsoft guns, so the main article was on how people created a custom original airsoft gun that replicated a real gun.“

ARMS Magazine prints 100,000 magazines a month. Most of which ”are sold in Japan.“ The rest are distributed to other parts of the world such as “other parts of Asia, America, and Europe.“

”I have no idea if the sales are good internationally, but apparently people who are interested in airsoft looks at ARMS Magazine throughout the world.“

The time it takes to put out an issue varies. It usually takes a month to put one together, but ”when we have ‘hot’ articles in the magazine, we sometimes make the magazine in a week before it is due. When we take our time, it takes about 3 months.“ His goal is to ”create a magazine that a lot of readers will enjoy is always on my mind. I try very hard every month to make the magazine enjoyable to all airsoft enthusiasts.“
The writers all use Windows based programs while the designers tend to favor Macs. When laying out an issue they ”use a DTP software program called QuarkXPress. We also use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.“

ARMS Magazine Headquarters

ARMS Magazine is huge. With close to 300 pages an issue, it’s amazing that they only have five writers on staff. ”However, there are also assistants, photographers, and many other people that make it all possible. Everyone who works at Arms Magazine plays airsoft. Not everybody are obsessed, but everybody likes the game. When we go out on an interview, we all play airsoft if we have time.“

The cover stories often are the latest products coming out of Japan. ”if a toy gun maker has a new product, we usually put that new product as the main article. For example, when Tokyo Marui made the M14, we had articles and reviews on the airsoft M14, the real steel M14, and all sorts of articles related to that gun.“

There are many feature sections of ARMS that people look forward too. Some of the more popular ones are ToyGuns Field, and the military history and real steel articles. One of the sections that is missed in ARMS Magazine featured the famous rock star Demon Kogure. His band was very ”famous and popular. They were called ‘Seiki-matsu’ and were featured in ARMS back in 1999. They also liked to play airsoft. The band broke up in 1999, but the boss ‘Demon Kogure’ is still a celebrity and currently is still on TV shows.“

ARMS photo shoot with ARMY 125th Infantry

Above, above right and left: ARMS Magazine photo shoot with Boss, Nakajima san, and Nakayama san. Another very popular section features Gerirarira. This team goes out and challenges other teams in airsoft skirmishes. ”Gerirarira started in August 2001. Boss Gerira is the main character in this group and his articles are very popular in Arms Magazine.“

”Articles featuring Gerirarira are very popular with gamers because the article is written with a player’s perspective. There are a lot of groups and players who would like to play airsoft with Team Gerirarira.“

Boss Gerira

A new feature of ARMS Magazine is the cartoon ”‘Pikuseru Maritan’ which was created in February 2005. One of the ARMS staff thought that slang used by the US Marines was very interesting“ and decided to do a cartoon featuring the words. Also, ”anime these days have a lot of guns and there a lot of people who get interested in toy guns when they start to watch these anime. This is the same reason why we also insert movie and video game articles in the magazine.“

Pikuseru Maritan

Another recent and very noticeable feature of ARMS is the cover girls. ”Cover Girl started from February 2003. This started because we realized that most of the people who buys and reads Arms Magazine are males. Realistically, we have sold a lot more Arms Magazine when we started to have Cover Girls.“ They do have requests from long time readers ”that they prefer soldiers and guns as the cover.“

Many players have asked us to find out if ARMS will ever come out in English. ”So far we do not have plans to make an English Arms Magazine. The problem factor is that we do not have the money and the staff to do such a big project. Above all, we cannot make the magazine without airsoft related news from non-Japanese places.“ The reason ”we can not put too many articles on international products because many of the products outside of Japan are a copy of Japanese airsoft guns or parts. We cannot introduce too many articles on international products because it may cause problems with the Japanese manufacturers.“ However, they ”sometimes do put articles on non-Japanese products. But we try to focus on new products from Japanese toy gun shops. We sometimes do show Hong Kong or Taiwanese products.“

Working for ARMS Magazine can be fun, but for Nakajima one drawback is the fact that he can’t share the information he finds out about all of the airsoft products that are still in development. ”In between the Toy gun makers and Arms Magazine, we have a ‘Confidentiality of Information’ agreement. Until the magazine has been released, only people who can be trusted like the writers can know the new
information.“ It is a tough job he says, but if ”confidential information leaks from ARMS, we will lose the trust from the Toy gun maker and we will not be able to get further information on new
products. So I am particularly not too happy to be able to get all the new information before everyone else. But protecting this rule allows ARMS magazine to get all the information on new products.“

A big event that ARMS Magazine held for airsoft enthusiasts was the annual ASCS which stands for ARMS Survival Camp in Summer. It started back in 1989, ”the first place where we had ASCS was at a place called Sugadaira, so the original name for the game was Arms Survival Camp in Sugadaira. With Arms Magazine readers and the staff, the biggest game we had had more than 500 players. However, we are not sure if we going to have a 2005 ASCS because of money and staff problems.“

Again this year ARMS Magazine attended Hawaii’s largest airsoft event- the ASH BASH. ”ASH BASH was a lot of fun! Boss Gerira was saying the exact same thing. It is really amazing that 470 people got together to play airsoft. Unlike Japanese airsoft games, I liked how the games were not tightly scheduled. It seems like the number of airsoft players is increasing in Hawaii, so I am excited to see the future of Airsoft in Hawaii.“ Coverage of the 2005 ASH BASH can be seen in the November issue of ARMS Magazine. The 2004 ASH BASH can also be seen in the 2004 issue number 10 and issue number 11.

ARMS at ASH BASH

Nakajima says ”in Japan, the fields where people can play airsoft are decreasing (land where people can just play with friends). However, indoor and outdoor fields designated for airsoft is increasing (you pay to play).“ He stresses ”it is very important to play with stable and appropriate safety rules.“

As for the future of airsoft, Nakajima states airsoft will continue to grow. ”Airsoft guns are improving (AEG and pistols) and a lot more new products will be out in the market. Recently, indoor games are becoming popular, so I predict that there will be different game styles that people can enjoy in the future. Ideally, I would want future airsoft to be an activity that everyone can enjoy safely.“