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Bandai's Purimopuero soft toys are displayed at a Tokyo toy show. [Agencies]
Purimopueru is a knee-high Japanese doll with soft, apple-spotted cheeks and
big black button eyes. It comes i
n green and pink. When you cuddle it or talk to
it, it talks back. It's for grandmothers.
The doll, an award-winner at last week's Tokyo Toy Show, is generating new
sales among the elderly for creator Namco Bandai Holdings as the birthrate
drops. Japan is the first developed country to register more annual deaths than
births and the elderly will outnumber children two to one within five years,
according to the nation's Health Ministry.
"There just aren't as many kids anymore," said Fumiaki Ibuki, 57, a member of
the committee that plans the Tokyo Toy Show. "The industry is addressing the
problem by widening its target age. The idea is toys aren't just for kids."
Bandai, which markets 20 percent of its toys to adults, started the
Purimopueru line for children in 1999. It's now Bandai's best-selling doll with
more than a million bought, mostly by women in their 50s and 60s, said the
product's creative director, Hiroko Tajima. It sells for 7,980 yen ($75).
Japan's $6.3 billion toy industry, whose market has shrunk by 10 percent
since 2003, isn't alone in turning to older consumers. Toyota Motor Corp makes
versions of its cars for the Japanese market with a detachable seat that becomes
a wheelchair.
Fujitsu Ltd said this month it will start sending staff to the homes of the
elderly who buy a computer to set the system up. The so-called raku-raku pack,
Japanese for "as easy as pie" is aimed at people over 60. The company says as
many as 70 percent of that age group doesn't own a computer.
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