Tokyo Toy Show returns after virus hiatus

Jiji Press

12:26 JST, June 17, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The 2022 International Tokyo Toy Show, one of the largest toy trade fairs in Japan, opened on Thursday, after a two-year hiatus due to the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The event will run until Friday at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center in the capital’s Koto Ward for business-related visitors only, barring the general public.

The trade fair brings together about 20,000 toy items from 96 companies, including updated versions of classic toys and environmentally friendly toys.

MegaHouse Corp. is showcasing Rubik’s Cube Impossible, whose colored squares’ surfaces are made to change color depending on the angle players look at them, to spice up the long-selling 3D puzzle.

Tomy Co.’s new “Choro-Q” pullback cars allow users to choose the way they move from combinations of going straight and rotating.

Among environmentally conscious toys making appearances at the event, toy blocks developed by Kawada Co. are made from rice that was to be discarded. Mattel International K.K. presented a toy block set featuring a refuse collection vehicle designed for young children to play and learn about waste sorting.

Meanwhile, Tomy and its collaboration partner, Bandai Spirits Co., featured a new miniature car in Tomy’s “Tomica” line that is modeled after the White Base, a spaceship from popular Japanese anime series “Mobile Suit Gundam.” They will jointly roll out a series of new toys under the collaboration.

“This Tomica is targeted at children aged 6 or older, but I want them to enjoy playing with the toy together with their dads and moms,” Tomy Managing Director Akio Tomiyama, who calls himself a fan of the Gundam series, said at a press conference.

The Japanese toy industry generated sales of ¥894.6 billion in fiscal 2021, up 8.5% from the previous year and the highest since comparable data became available in fiscal 2001, according to the Japan Toy Association, the organizer of the event.