For middle-aged Japanese men, it is never too late to be an action hero.
As the nation has fewer and fewer children, Japanese toy companies have found a vein of gold among grown-up kids, who are snapping up favorite childhood gadgets that are being upgraded and remarketed decades later.
Major toymaker Bandai recently launched ¥30,000 (US$270) adult-size reproductions of an action hero belt worn on the megahit Kamen Rider (masked rider) television series in the 1970s.
PHOTO: AFP
"When you grow up, you face lots of loathsome things in your workplace or at home," said Yasumasa Kawauchi, a Bandai official in charge of the boys' toys strategy.
Transformation
"Once you put this belt on, however, you can be Kamen Rider the hero, a different self," said the 39-year-old who himself grew up watching the show, in which the grasshopper-clad superhero battles a shady terrorist organization.
Kawauchi said it would give hard-working middle-aged men an opportunity to spend money on themselves by buying the leather belt, which flashes with LED lights.
As the former boys have acquired not only purchasing power but also girth, the belt stretches 110cm, about double the size of the original hot-selling version for children that first came out in 1971.
Bandai sold a staggering 3.8 million of the original Kamen Rider belts, enabling a generation of Japanese boys to shout out "Transform!" and spin their arms around to become cyborg heroes with blinking belts.
Salarymen on the streets of Tokyo show interest in the belt, even if not everyone is willing to spalsh out on one.
"This brings about strong flashbacks from my childhood," said 41-year-old Shoji Nishiguchi, who works for a wine import company.
"I have no plan to purchase it as ¥30,000 is a bit pricey. But I'm sure some people want it," he said. "It is great to see something you spent your childhood with appearing before you in an upgraded form."
A 39-year-old advertising agency official said: "I had one when I was little ... It's such sweet pleasure to see this again."
In the 1970s, each belt sold for ¥1,500, or ¥8,000 to ¥9,000 at today's prices. Kamen Rider still airs new episodes on Sundays and a new edition of the belt for children is on the market for ¥2,500.
Major toy store Hakuhinkan in central Tokyo said the adult belts have seen a fair share of interest, considering the high price, with many middle-aged men at least coming in to take a look.
Expanded market
"The boundary of toys has expanded. It is not unusual nowadays that adults buy toys for themselves," Hakuhinkan spokeswoman Harumi Ogikuma said.
In Japan, where men pack video arcades and there is nothing unusual about middle-aged women collecting dolls, adults provide an ideal market for the toy industry which is struggling to adjust to demographic trends.
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