Bonsoir,
State of play: Toymakers bounce back in the land of adult nappies
They have become pioneers in how to adapt to a rapidly ageing society
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, an American educator who travelled to Japan in the 1870s, noted that in the previous two and a half centuries, "the main business of this nation was play." He described toyshops filled as full as Christmas stockings and plenty of grown-ups.
Griffis would have found it familiar walking today around Hakuhinkan Toy Park, one of the largest toy stores in Tokyo. Teens, office workers and grandparents are mostly to be seen perusing its 200,000-odd knick-knacks across five floors. Its director, Hiroyuki Itoh, says he wants the store to be a place where everyone can play. After work, suited salarymen come to spend ¥200 (under $2) for a five-minute whizz around a 36-metre slot-car racetrack. In another corner a group of university students fiddle with displays of toys from their childhoods.
Playthings aimed at the over-20s make up 27% of Japan's domestic toy sales, according to figures from Euromonitor, a market-research firm. That grown-up portion of the market has been crucial for Japan's three biggest players, Bandai Namco, Takara Tomy and Sanrio, as the country's birth rate has slumped. Since the 1970s the proportion of under-15s has halved, to 12% of the population. By 2060 it is likely to be 9%.
Fumiaki Ibuki of Toy Journal, a 114-year-old trade magazine, says Japanese toy companies are pioneers in adapting to ageing. Despite a slow economy, the sector has, in the past two years, done its best in a decade: in the fiscal year ending in 2015, sales in core categories (excluding video games) rose by a tenth on the previous year, to over ¥800bn. Mr Ibuki says toymakers are taking a "borderless" approach: selling to a wider age range, and teaming up with trend-driven sectors like tech and fashion.
When Bandai's Tamagotchi, virtual pets housed in an egg-shaped toy, were booming in the mid-1990s, women in their 20s and 30s were big buyers. The same age-group snapped up Licca-chan, Japan's answer to Barbie, made by Takara Tomy. The firm now has an adult range: its "Cappuccino One-Piece" doll, sells for ¥12,000.
A stigma against adults having fun, strong in the aftermath of the second world war, has faded. Many want to recapture their youth, not so much by playing, but by collecting and displaying toys, says Harold Meij, the boss of Takara Tomy-so, for its premium Tomica model-car range, the company uses vintage designs that adults admired as boys. Having only one child later in life, as more Japanese now do, means that parents have more to spend on their offspring. Children are said to have "six pockets": two from their parents, and four from their grandparents.
During the global financial crisis of 2008, cheap impulse-buy toys took off, such as trading cards and coin-operated machines that dispense capsules of small toys-usually of well- known characters from Japanese comic books and television series.
The big themes in the toy industry are collectability and intellectual property (IP). A recent hit was a watch branded "Yo-kai", after the word in Japanese for supernatural spirits, by Bandai. It exemplifies a popular strategy: Yo-kai, whose hero wears the watch, began as a
cartoon series in 2013, was adapted for TV and made into a hit video game. The model is known as "media mix" in the industry. Bandai has partnered with Dentsu, an advertising giant, to promote anime, a word defining Japanese animation. But when the story of a character catches on, toy- and film-makers end up splitting fat profits. It all makes for a sizzling recipe.
Adapted from The Economist, Feb. 23, 2017.
DM: Rédiger le compte-rendu du texte sur les jouets au Japon en français avec tous les éléments du texte.
State of play: Toymakers bounce back in the land of adult nappies
They have become pioneers in how to adapt to a rapidly ageing society
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, an American educator who travelled to Japan in the 1870s, noted that in the previous two and a half centuries, "the main business of this nation was play." He described toyshops filled as full as Christmas stockings and plenty of grown-ups.
Griffis would have found it familiar walking today around Hakuhinkan Toy Park, one of the largest toy stores in Tokyo. Teens, office workers and grandparents are mostly to be seen perusing its 200,000-odd knick-knacks across five floors. Its director, Hiroyuki Itoh, says he wants the store to be a place where everyone can play. After work, suited salarymen come to spend ¥200 (under $2) for a five-minute whizz around a 36-metre slot-car racetrack. In another corner a group of university students fiddle with displays of toys from their childhoods.
Playthings aimed at the over-20s make up 27% of Japan's domestic toy sales, according to figures from Euromonitor, a market-research firm. That grown-up portion of the market has been crucial for Japan's three biggest players, Bandai Namco, Takara Tomy and Sanrio, as the country's birth rate has slumped. Since the 1970s the proportion of under-15s has halved, to 12% of the population. By 2060 it is likely to be 9%.
Fumiaki Ibuki of Toy Journal, a 114-year-old trade magazine, says Japanese toy companies are pioneers in adapting to ageing. Despite a slow economy, the sector has, in the past two years, done its best in a decade: in the fiscal year ending in 2015, sales in core categories (excluding video games) rose by a tenth on the previous year, to over ¥800bn. Mr Ibuki says toymakers are taking a "borderless" approach: selling to a wider age range, and teaming up with trend-driven sectors like tech and fashion.
When Bandai's Tamagotchi, virtual pets housed in an egg-shaped toy, were booming in the mid-1990s, women in their 20s and 30s were big buyers. The same age-group snapped up Licca-chan, Japan's answer to Barbie, made by Takara Tomy. The firm now has an adult range: its "Cappuccino One-Piece" doll, sells for ¥12,000.
A stigma against adults having fun, strong in the aftermath of the second world war, has faded. Many want to recapture their youth, not so much by playing, but by collecting and displaying toys, says Harold Meij, the boss of Takara Tomy-so, for its premium Tomica model-car range, the company uses vintage designs that adults admired as boys. Having only one child later in life, as more Japanese now do, means that parents have more to spend on their offspring. Children are said to have "six pockets": two from their parents, and four from their grandparents.
During the global financial crisis of 2008, cheap impulse-buy toys took off, such as trading cards and coin-operated machines that dispense capsules of small toys-usually of well- known characters from Japanese comic books and television series.
The big themes in the toy industry are collectability and intellectual property (IP). A recent hit was a watch branded "Yo-kai", after the word in Japanese for supernatural spirits, by Bandai. It exemplifies a popular strategy: Yo-kai, whose hero wears the watch, began as a
cartoon series in 2013, was adapted for TV and made into a hit video game. The model is known as "media mix" in the industry. Bandai has partnered with Dentsu, an advertising giant, to promote anime, a word defining Japanese animation. But when the story of a character catches on, toy- and film-makers end up splitting fat profits. It all makes for a sizzling recipe.
Adapted from The Economist, Feb. 23, 2017.
DM: Rédiger le compte-rendu du texte sur les jouets au Japon en français avec tous les éléments du texte.
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Toy makers in Japan are bouncing back by targeting adults as the country's birth rate slumps and the proportion of under-15s in the population halves. Figures from Euromonitor indicate toys aimed at those over 20 make up 27% of Japan's domestic toy sales. Bandai Namco, Takara Tomy and Sanrio have all been successful in the adult market. While Japan's economy has been slow, the sector has done its best in a decade, with sales of core categories rising by a net 10% in the fiscal year ending 2015 to over JPY800bn ($7.1bn).