In 2019, the scale of Japanese food games was about 48 billion yen, and Bandai is a "big player" in this market. In the past 24 years, Bandai has sold a total of 2,575.16 million food games, including 346.81 million super team series and more than 300 million pokemon kids series.
Author: Rabbit Card
Food play (しょくがん, shokugan) is an abbreviation for food toys, which were mostly fist-sized toys that came with boxed snacks or drinks at the beginning, and are also known in the industry as "toys" or "play". With the development of food play, it is gradually divided into edible play with food products, and food play without food products.
The size of Japan's food and play market has always been counted by the Japan Toy Association. As early as 2017, the size of the Japanese food and play market reached 43.2 billion yen. The market size from 2002 to 2017 fluctuated between 43.2 billion and 65.9 billion.
Since 2018, the Japan Toy Association has temporarily stopped counting the size of the separate food and play market, but according to the data of Fuji Economic Co., Ltd. cited in Bandai's public report, the Japanese food and play market in 2018 increased by about 10% year-on-year, and the market size in 2019 was the same as that in 2018.
In other words, the size of the Japanese food and play market last year was about 48 billion yen.
Looking at the historical data and referring to the gacha market, we find that in Japan, food and play are no less popular than gacha, and the history is long enough. The typical difference between food play and gacha is still in price, compared with gacha, the average price of food and play may be higher, partly explaining the reason why the size of the food and play market has been larger than that of gacha for a long time.
Historically, early food play was dominated by "food", the existence of toys was used as a giveaway to increase sales, and early toys were dominated by simple forms such as cards. Gradually, enterprises began to pay attention to the "play" in food and play, food and play became more and more diversified and refined, the collection value continued to increase, and the main consumer groups also shifted to adult groups.
This shift in consumer groups also reflects the grim situation of Japan's "low birthrate". Statistics from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare show that the number of Births in Japan was less than 900,000 for the first time in 2019. In the context of the increasingly serious situation of "low birthrate", the Japanese toy industry is seeking breakthroughs by expanding its audience and trying to attract adult consumers. The food and play industry is no exception, and it can even be called a sub-industry in the toy industry that acts earlier and implements more thoroughly.
So, how did the historic food game become an industry in Japan? How did you move from child-oriented to adult-oriented? Who are the major players in the industry? We'll try to answer these questions below.
A brief history of the development of the Japanese food and play industry
Japan's earliest concept of food and play can be traced back to the Edo period, where drug dealers represented by Toyama Prefecture took small gifts of local souvenirs as small gifts for purchasing medicines. From the late Edo period to the Meiji era, prints and paper balloons for children were also donated.
In 1899, the Murai Brothers Chamber of Commerce began to sell cigarettes with cigarette cards, including playing cards, photographs of soldiers, and Western women's drawing cards. As children smoked in order to receive gifts, the following year the Juvenile Prohibition Act was established.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the development of commercial food and play in Japan began. In 1923, milk candy produced by Ezaki Glico (Ezaki グリコ) began to come with cards as a giveaway, and in 1927, Glico was released with a giveaway. Ezaki Glico is therefore known as the ancestor of food play.
In 1952, Kabaya Foods (カバヤ foods) was given as a bunku coupon. Collect 50 library vouchers and send them to the company in exchange for a single book of novels in the "Kabaya Children's Library" (a collection of world famous novels), an activity that lasted until 1954.
In the second half of the 20th century, the Japanese food and play market gradually received the blessing of IP and continued to develop. In 1964, Meiji Fruit Maker's Marble chocolates began to come with stickers of astro boy, the first time animated characters were used as a giveaway for food promotions. After that, the food and play of TV animated characters will further explode.
In 1967, Morinaga Fruit Company's chocolate balls were released. So far, food and play have been sold as a promotion with a giveaway on top of existing food, but for the first time, the product has bound toys and food from the beginning.
For more than 40 years after Glico's release, Japanese food has always been based on food, and toys are completely giveaways. However, the explosive popularity of the Kamen Rider series reversed this master-slave relationship. In 1971, the Kamen Rider Food Play series of calbee-made fruit (now calbee, カルビー) was released, with Kamen Rider's special famous scene card. In 1973, calbee's professional baseball game went on sale, intending to catch up with the popularity of the Kamen Rider series.
Subsequently, in 1978, Kabaya Food's chewing gum play was released, and the accompanying plastic mold play occupied most of the packaging, but the chewing gum was only one, known as the "chewing gum is a giveaway" series, which can be said to be the ancestor of the later systematic food play.
In the Japanese toy world, models and animated cartoon characters were not really connected until the early 80s. In 1981, Bandai joined hands with various popular animated cartoon characters to launch exquisite food play, raising the threshold of food and play categories, and also promoting the real development of food and play into a unique toy market.
The early target users of food and play were only children, and at the end of the century, there were various new trends in the food and play market, which changed this history and set off a wave of food and play in Japan.
In January 1999, Fujiya's miniskirt series was released, which gained great popularity among adult women and greatly expanded the child-centered food and play purchase layer to this day. After this product, the food and play market began to pay a little attention to the adult group.
In 1998, the Kinder Surprise chocolate series imported from Ferrero Company caused people to compete for purchases, and Furuta Fruit Company was also promoting the development of similar foods.
In September 1999, Furuta Fruit Maker and Ocean Hall launched the "Chocolate Egg Series" food game, and the first bullet of the Japanese Animal Collection was released in September, the second bullet was released in December of the same year, and the third bullet was released in February 2000.
Furuta's chocolate egg collection is constructed in two layers of milk chocolate (outside) and white chocolate (inside), and is handmade by handmade by handmade miniature animals in the egg-shaped chocolate belly, led by Shinobu Matsumura, who is second to none in carving animals, and costs only 150 yen. Because of its extremely exquisite shape, very colorful colors and low price, sales reached 130 million in three years, and sales in the 19 years were 330 million, which is a double miracle in the history of food and toys.
The series has been produced by a professional model play manufacturer Ocean Hall since the planning stage, and the quality of the shape is also very high, which directly promotes the expansion of the food and play industry, the high level of quality, and the adultization of the main purchase layer. After the success of Furuta's "Chocolate Egg Series", many merchants who were not interested in food and play began to pay attention to food and play, and companies began to sell a wide variety of high-quality food play. According to Japanese media reports, the food and play trend has since become a social phenomenon and lasted until the mid-2000s.
In addition, it is very important that at that time, convenience stores across the country gradually penetrated from cities to non-urban areas, and the sinking of channels was also considered to be one of the important factors that set off the food and play fever. In the early days, food and play must be attached to food, and the main sales channels are also typical sales channels for food, such as supermarkets. With the increasing toy and scale of food and play, its channels have also begun to be enriched, expanding from supermarkets to convenience stores and department stores. Today, according to a survey by the Yano Research Institute, in addition to the above channels, the main sales channels for food and play include toy stores and e-commerce platforms.
In June 2001, furuta was licensed for the first time for a difficult-to-obtain Disney character in the popular chocolate egg. In this regard, Ocean Hall, which specializes in making non-copyright non-character mock-ups (such as animals, dinosaurs, and military), objected on the grounds that "furuta gave up the honor of success of non-character original products". However, furuta still released the Disney series of chocolate egg eaters in October of the same year.
Due to different philosophies, Ocean Hall canceled its contract with Furuta and published an article titled "Goodbye Chocolate Eggs" in February 2002, officially announcing that the two companies had parted ways. Originally scheduled to be released on chocolate eggs, the "Japan Animal Collection No. 6 Bomb" and other food and play projects were taken over by TAKARA, which signed a new contract with Ocean Hall, and began to be released in September 2002 under the name "Chocolate Q". The casting of the Chocolate Q series also takes precedence over Japanese animals and pets, and the number of food and play also undertakes the Chocolate Egg series.
In 2006, Takara and TOMY, which sold Chocolate Q, merged to form TAKARA TOMY, and the planning of the Chocolate Q series continued. The 11th Japanese Animal Bomb, released on March 27, 2006, was the last bullet in the series, and no new products in the series have been released since.
Ocean Hall reflected internally and then said, "What has changed in our five years [in the food and play industry]? No, unfortunately, I don't seem to have even taken half a step. Even the rest of the industry doesn't feel the sense of crisis we're thinking about. Therefore, in the same year, The Ocean Hall issued a "Declaration on the Retreat of Food and Play", which to a certain extent marked the ebb and flow of food and play in Japan.
Major player in the Japanese food play market
According to the release list of the Japanese website "Eating And Play Kingdom" and Japanese media reports, in addition to Ocean Hall, the representative companies that are still active in the Japanese food and play market are mainly Bandai, Re-ment, furuta, f-toys, Esaki Grico, kabaya, TAKARA TOMY, etc., as well as Meiji Fruit, Morinaga Fruit, calbee, Rakuten, Fujiya, UHA Taste Candy, konami, megahouse, square enix, etc., as well as Meiji Fruit, Morinaga Fruit, Calbee, Rakuten, Fujiya, UHA Taste Candy, Konami, Megahouse, Square enix, etc. More than 30 companies from the fields of food and beverage, games and toy models, such as The Kittan Club and GSC. The most typical ones are briefly described below.
1. Bandai
As the largest toy company in Japan, Bandai already had a strong company brand before the food and play trend.
By using the production capacity of large enterprises to reduce production costs, we have developed a high-quality food and play series with high quality and low unit price. Bandai has occupied about 40%-50% of the food and play market for a long time, and there has been a slight decline in recent years.
Bandai's share of the Japanese food and play market remained at 40%.
According to the public information disclosed by Bandai, from 1995 to March 2019, Bandai has sold a total of 2,575.16 million food games, of which 346.81 million are super team series, and the sales of the pokemon kids series sold in 1996 exceeded 300 million.
2.Re-went
Founded in 1998, Re-ment was an early company that produced miscellaneous goods such as mobile phone hangers, and currently employs 42 people.
Re-ment's food and play are exquisitely crafted, known for their simulation and cuteness, and are highly reproducible in daily life, such as Japanese food, snack food, supermarket goods, household goods, and life scenes. In 2002, the first bullet of the miniature series and the food station were released, and 144 bullets of the same series have been released so far.
Beginning in 2005, Re-ment targeted white-collar women to launch food and play, and has since expanded its target population. At present, Re-ment's target users cover different groups such as children, teenagers, and adult women.
3.Kaiyodo
Ocean Hall is a family-owned business, founded in 1964, and has only 49 employees to date. The company is well known among Japanese companies for its superb production level and unique business model.
Ocean Hall was responsible for the production of the chocolate egg series that promoted the trend of food and play, and has raised public awareness since then. Although the cooperation with Furuta was lifted, there was a period of time when the brand of Ocean Hall alone could drive sales to become a popular product.
Ocean Hall has been operating in a relatively ordinary state in recent years, and due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, the important source of income, the Wonder Festival, has not been held. Due to the formation of a capital partnership with the mitsui-type investment company, it will attract much attention in the future. (See: What kind of toy company is Ocean Hall, which is owned by Mitsui Chaebol?) ）
4.furuta
Founded in Osaka in 1952, it currently employs 280 people. At the end of the 20th century, the chocolate egg series launched by United Ocean Hall set off a wave of food and play in Japan.
Only 2 years later, in 2002, the former executive director of the Furuta Fruit Making Company, which was in charge of contacting Ocean Hall, resigned together with his subordinates, and the pipe connecting Furuta and Ocean Hall disappeared, and the reason for the resignation was actually a dispute related to Disney, and Ocean Hall's chocolate egg series ended. However, in the end, it was only the termination of the cooperation with Ocean Hall, and the chocolate egg series itself has continued to exist, with sales of 330 million units in the 19 years since its release.
Until now, Furuta is still releasing new food play series. Taking 2019 as an example, furuta released Pokémon, Doraemon, Frozen, Hello Kitty and other characters to play.
5.f-toys
Founded in November 2001, it is the former furuta fruit making executive and subordinates who ran away together to establish the company, and now that more than 10 years have passed since the tide of food and play, it is still one of the companies that insist on launching food and play.
Originally planned for the 1/144 WORK SHOP SERIES military aircraft, it was later expanded to ships and tanks, and today a wide range of vehicles are also available.
6.TAKARA VOLUMES
Takara TOMY, Japan's second largest toy company, was not satisfied with Bandai's dominance in the food and play market, and also set up a food and play department around 2000 and began to exert its strength.
With the end of the cooperation between Ocean Hall and Furuta, TAKARA TOMY established a partnership with Ocean Hall and launched the Chocolate Q Series, which takara officially entered the food and play market, with a sales target of 5 billion yen in the first year. The series began its release in 2002, with 11 bombs released in March 2006 being the last in the series.
At present, TAKARA TOMY's food play mainly relies on the sub-brand TAKARA TOMY ARTS for sale, taking 2019 as an example, there are still various characters, animals, and transportation food and play for sale.