TOKYO – The toy market in Japan is on an upward trend despite the country’s declining birthrate, boosted by robust demand by adults seeing gadgets as an affordable hobby and means to connect with others via social media, a research firm said.
The market in fiscal 2024 grew 7.9 percent from a year earlier to a record 1.1 trillion yen ($7.4 billion), led by trading cards and character merchandise, expanding 36 percent from 10 years ago, according to the Japan Toy Association.
Other toys that saw notable sales growth were high-tech toys such as “Original Tamagotchi,” a small egg-shaped video game, and stuffed animals that are popular among adults in Japan as well as foreign tourists, the association said.
“The conventional image of toys being for kids has started to change, as they became a hobby for adults and a means of self-expression among them in recent years,” said Satsuki Kimura, an economist from the Meiji Yasuda Research Institute, in a recent report.
Supporting the view, spending for toys expanded particularly among single-person households without a child, with the average expenditure in 2024 jumping by around 3.5-fold to 14,498 yen from 2014, according to the research firm’s analysis of government data.
The figure surpassed the average 12,367 yen spent by multi-person households including those with at least one child, it said.
Citing low-priced products such as capsule toys and trading cards, “Toys have become an affordable option (for adults) as costs for hobbies and entertainment have surged as a whole,” Kimura said.
Social media now serves not only as a channel for companies to advertise their products, but also as a platform for users to communicate through consumption, such as people posting photos of them going out with stuffed animals, the research firm said.
The trend “reflects the growing appreciation for values centered on empathy, approval and connection alongside ownership,” Kimura said. “It points to how consumers are finding value not just in the object, but the experience or relationship with other people.”
AloJapan.com