Hokkaido Company Pres. Develops AED Toy to Promote Awareness

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Oct 6, 2025 18:17 (JST)

Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)–The president of a company in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, has developed a children’s toy resembling an automated external defibrillator, or AED, to reduce the fear associated with using the lifesaving device.

The toy sold out soon after going on sale last autumn, but it will be available for purchase again next March.

The “Toy Cocoro,” named after the Japanese word for heart, kokoro, was developed by 37-year-old Kyosuke Sakano, president of an industrial machinery repair and inspection company in the Hokkaido city of Kitami. Its main unit is connected by cords to two pads resembling electrode pads on an AED.

When children apply the pads to dolls, the toy plays a voice recording telling them that an electric shock is necessary. The toy vibrates when the heart-shaped button on the main unit is pressed.

The toy does not deliver actual electric shocks. It tells children to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as an actual AED would.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press