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| Above, an Asakusa toy store in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Buying toys in Japan is one of those pastimes that many foreign visitors indulge in.
I and many others in Godzilla/kaiju fandom collect Japanese toys of their favorite monsters in the U.S. in stores that specialize in them or at conventions such as the annual G-FEST conventions. The biggest draw at G-FEST, for example, is the dealers room where toys of every size and description can be found. Most dealers price them reasonably.
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| Above, I got this 1968 Godzilla toy during my 2015 Japan trip in Asakusa. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Those same toys are available in Japan at considerably lower prices. One popular stop for foreign visitors is Mandarake in the Nakano section of Tokyo. I found some good deals there over the years.
Since Japan has reopened to foreign visitors, toy sales there have skyrocketed. It it likely due to pent-up demand from the pandemic closure of the country. According to an article in The Japan Times, toy sales in Japan topped ¥1 trillion for the first time.
They wrote:
Japan's toy market topped ¥1 trillion ($7 billion) for the first time in the financial year that ended in March, driven in part by solid demand for goods of anime characters and franchises like Pokemon from foreign tourists, an industry body said Thursday.
Sales of card games, stuffed toys, model vehicles and other types of toys totaled ¥952.5 billion, up 6.7% from a year earlier, according to the Japan Toy Association.
Sales of "capsule toys," or miniature toys sold in plastic capsules from vending machines, amounted to ¥61 billion, up 35.6%.
To read more, go here.
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