Osaka pinball hall turns makeshift vaccine centre

A pachinko parlour in Osaka turned into a vaccination site on Tuesday to accelerate the rollout of COVID-19 shots in Japan.

The parlour has been closed for two days to inoculate its employees, members of the arcade and the neighbours - about 1,500 people are scheduled to be vaccinated there.

"This was really helpful as I called hospitals many times but either they didn't answer or they were fully booked," said a woman who lives nearby and got vaccinated at the parlour.

Japan initially lagged behind other countries in inoculating its population.

But it has made fast progress since with more than half of the population now fully vaccinated, drawing level with the United States.