Tokyo Toy Show 2024 opens to attract adults

The picture shows the “Tokyo Toy Show 2024” opened at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center. Photo taken on August 29 in Koto Ward, Tokyo. (Kyodo News)

[Kyodo News, August 30](Reporter: Gao Lan) Japan’s largest toy exhibition “Tokyo Toy Show 2024” opened at Tokyo Big Sight (Koto-ku, Tokyo) on the 29th. The toys at the exhibition not only include various novel ideas, but also integrate cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI); not only bring joy to children, but also strive to attract adults.

The organizer, the Japan Toy Association, said that in 2023, the domestic toy market in Japan will exceed 1 trillion yen (about 48.9 billion yuan) for the first time. This is mainly due to the popularity of card games, as well as the good sales of models and figurines. Despite the worsening birth rate, it has continued to grow for four consecutive years since 2019.

The association’s award-winning toys in nine categories were also on display. In the “Kids + Adult” category, which targets adults, the grand prize went to TAKARA TOMY’s new Licca doll series. Kawada’s (Tokyo) building blocks can be assembled into a palm-sized grand piano, supervised by the famous Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

In other categories, Bandai won the award for its creative and unique transformation belt, which can transform the “snack monster” with sound and light by turning the hand crank. Bandai also launched a smartphone-type toy with replaceable top ear decorations based on the cute characters of the popular anime “Chiikawa”.

The integration of cutting-edge technology is also a major trend in the toy industry. Bandai’s Doraemon AI Computer is said to be the industry’s first computer toy equipped with AI learning functions, which can analyze the subjects that children are good at and not good at. SEGA Group’s “SEGA Fave” company has brought the experience-based learning toy “ePICO 100 Experiences”, which can be intuitively operated through a microphone, a learning pen with a vibration function, etc.

The toy exhibition is the 61st this year, with 192 domestic and foreign companies participating and about 35,000 exhibits. It is open to the public on the 31st and September 1st, with free admission for junior high school students and below, and 1,800 yen for high school students and above. (End)