Japan’s US$7.4 billion toy market booms despite low birth rate as adults get playful
Spending for toys has expanded particularly among single-person households without a child as adults embrace hobbies
The market in the 2024 financial year grew 7.9 per cent from a year earlier to a record 1.1 trillion yen (US$7.4 billion), led by trading cards and character merchandise, expanding 36 per cent from 10 years ago, according to the Japan Toy Association.
Other toys that saw notable sales growth were hi-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.