Driven by ‘kidults,’ Japan’s toy market tops 1 tril. yen for 1st time in FY 2023

TOKYO — Despite the declining birth rate, the toy market in Japan exceeded 1 trillion yen (approx. $6.96 billion) for the first time in fiscal 2023, driven by “kidults” whom manufacturers are keen to oblige.

According to the Japan Toy Association, the domestic market grew for the fourth consecutive year to about 1.02 trillion yen (on a suggested retail price basis) in fiscal 2023, up 7.1% from the previous year. Though there had been periods when the toy market shrank or remained flat since 2000, it has been expanding steadily in recent years, driven in part by growing demand from foreign visitors to Japan.

The toy industry is supported by kidults — a portmanteau of kids and adults — and there have been an increasing number of products targeting those grown-up kids.

Daisuke Fujii, editor in chief of the Toy Journal, a monthly Japanese magazine specializing in the toy industry, analyzed, “Formerly known as the ‘mature fan base,’ kidults are helping the market grow worldwide in recent years. Another big factor is that the coronavirus pandemic led people to spend more time at home, and the appeal of toys has been reaffirmed.”

Card games and trading cards have a particularly strong presence, accounting for over a quarter of the market. Their sales in fiscal 2023 were 277.4 billion yen (roughly $1.93 billion), an increase of 42.5 billion yen (some $296 million) from the year prior. In addition to being played against each other, rare cards also have value as collections and assets, making them highly popular among kidults.

Sales of items in the “hobby” category, such as plastic models and figures, were 174.8 billion yen (approx. $1.22 billion) in fiscal 2023, while those of stuffed toys were 39 billion yen (about $271 million). These figures show strong growth at 4.7% and 20.7%, respectively, from the previous year. Sales of party-related items and magic trick goods are also increasing as people have more opportunities to get together now after the pandemic.

Fujii commented, “The customer demands and ways of enjoying toys are diversifying, such as the child-rearing generation enjoying products they were familiar with years ago with their children, and young women dressing up their favorite dolls and posting photos on social media.”

(Japanese original by Hayato Narisawa, Tokyo Business News Department)