“I finally bought the toy I wanted as a kid, now that I’m an adult.” “I stopped at a capsule-toy machine with my child — and somehow I’m the one who ended up collecting.” If any of that sounds familiar, you’re far from alone.
One factor behind the toy market’s growth, even as the number of children falls, is rising demand from adults buying toys for themselves — “kidult” demand.
According to the Japan Toy Association, the domestic toy market in fiscal 2025 reached 1.1664 trillion yen (about ¥1.17 trillion) at manufacturers’ suggested retail prices, up 6.3% year over year. It has set a record for six years running since fiscal 2019. Even with a falling birth rate, the toy market itself is expanding. (Japan’s fiscal year runs April through March.)
（Source: Domestic Toy Market Size | Japan Toy Association）
Reading that change simply as “adults have become more childish” misses what is really going on.
Plushie activity (“nui-katsu”), fan activity (“oshikatsu”), capsule toys, blind boxes, art toys, rebuying the toys you loved long ago. What is happening now is a shift in the very idea that “toys are things for children”.
This article lays out what a kidult is, why adults get drawn to toys, how it differs from spending on children’s toys, and how to think about enjoying it together as a family — close to the daily life of parenting-age readers.
Table of Contents
There are fewer children, so why is the toy market at a record high?
The child population alone no longer explains the toy market’s growth. What matters is that the range of buyers is widening — adults’ own hobbies and collecting, character-driven spending, and more.
The fiscal 2025 toy market: ¥1.17 trillion
According to the Japan Toy Association, the domestic toy market in fiscal 2025 was 1.1664 trillion yen, up 6.3% year over year.
It has set a record for six straight years since fiscal 2019, the largest since fiscal 2001, when the survey began in its current form. The ten core toy categories at the heart of the market also hit a record 796.7 billion yen, up 7.3% year over year.
（Source: Domestic Toy Market Size | Japan Toy Association）
Over a slightly longer span, the change is clearer still.
In an analysis Nomura Securities compiled from Japan Toy Association and Statistics Bureau of Japan data, the domestic toy market grew 37.3% over the ten years from fiscal 2015 to fiscal 2024, while Japan’s under-15 population fell by about 13%.
The same analysis points to “kidult spending” — adults’ toy spending — as one driver of the market’s growth, along with demand from inbound foreign visitors.
（Source: Kidult Spending: Why the Toy Market Grows Even With a Falling Birth Rate | Nomura Securities）
One thing to keep in mind here: don’t oversimplify this into “the market grew despite fewer children, so it’s all thanks to kidults.”
Several factors overlap — the growth of popular categories such as trading cards and character goods, higher unit prices, and inbound tourism. Within that, it’s fair to say that the market for adults buying toys for themselves is becoming a more important part of the picture.
It’s not only children’s parents who are buying toys
A telling sign of the market’s shift is a change in the stores themselves.
On July 17, 2026, Toys”R”Us Japan opened a “kidult” specialty store aimed mainly at adults at the Marui department store in Ueno, Tokyo.
Unlike a regular children’s store, it’s a space designed for adults choosing “for themselves” — collectible figures, blind boxes, character goods, squishies and the like.
（Source: Toys”R”Us Japan Grand-Opens a “Kidult” Shop at Marui Ueno | Toys”R”Us Japan）
The company says about 100 people lined up before opening on the first day, and first-day sales came to 386% of plan. This is one store’s result, not a figure for the whole market, but it shows that “toys for adults” is beginning to support a retail space of its own.
（Source: A “Kidult” Specialty Store Opens at Marui Ueno | Toys”R”Us Japan）
The toy aisle is no longer only a place to look for a child’s birthday or Christmas present.
Picking out your own figure on the way home from work. Turning the capsule-toy dial with your child. Clipping a plushie of a favorite character to your bag. Behaviors like these are becoming visible as a market of their own.
What is a “kidult”? The market for adults buying toys is widening
The term “kidult,” a blend of “Kid” and “Adult,” refers to adults who continue to enjoy toys, characters and the like as their own hobby.
Being a kidult doesn’t mean you haven’t grown up
Looking only at the word “kidult,” some may read a negative meaning into it — someone who reached adulthood while still a child.
But as the toy industry uses it today, kidult describes a more specific group of consumers.
Building plastic models. Collecting figures. Heading out with a plushie. Buying goods of a character you loved long ago. Lining up capsule-toy miniatures.
There’s no single way to enjoy it.
Toys are widening their role too — beyond play, into collecting, home decor, fashion, art and communication.
Rather than “adults have started buying children’s products too,” it’s closer to say that the category of toys itself is spreading across ages.
An estimated 5.35 million people in Japan
In a 2025 survey of 1,089 men and women aged 18 to 60, Happinet estimates the “kidult segment” — people who buy toys for themselves — at about 5.354 million nationwide.
The same survey puts the segment’s average annual spending at 14,574 yen and, combined with the population estimate, sizes the market at about 78 billion yen.
（Source: Kidult Population Estimated at Around 5.35 Million | Happinet）
That said, this roughly 78 billion yen and the Japan Toy Association’s 1.1664 trillion yen differ in survey scope and method, so you can’t simply calculate “what percentage of the toy market is kidult.”
Even so, it suggests that “adults buying toys” has grown to a scale you can’t explain by a small circle of enthusiasts alone.
Nui-katsu, oshikatsu and gacha overlap too
What’s interesting is that many people who don’t call themselves “kidults” enjoy things in a way that’s close to it.
In “nui-katsu” (plushie activity), people head out with a favorite plushie, photograph it at travel spots or cafés, and dress it in clothes.
In “oshikatsu” (fan activity), people collect plushies, figures and acrylic stands of an anime, idol or character they love.
With gacha (capsule toys) and blind boxes, the unboxing thrill of “not knowing what you’ll get” combines with the fun of collecting a series.
In other words, rather than a single “kidult” boom springing up all at once, it’s better to see it this way: nui-katsu, oshikatsu, character culture, gacha, art toys, retro revival and more have overlapped, making the connection between adults and toys easier to see.
Labubu, which spread from adult collectors to children too, gets a separate article covering the background of its popularity, how to spot genuine products, and safety.
Why do adults get drawn to toys? Five reasons
Adults want toys for more than just nostalgia. Past memories, old longings, the fun of collecting, self-expression and connection with others all overlap.
Reason 1: The “nostalgia” of returning to childhood memories
One big element in adult toy buying is nostalgia.
Characters, games, cards, freebies and stationery you played with as a child. The moment you see one again after years, you may recall not just the item but who you played with and where you were.
In psychology, researchers have studied the link between nostalgia and “self-continuity” — the sense of connection to your past, present and future self.
（Source: How Does Nostalgia Conduce to Global Self-Continuity? | Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin / PMC）
Even so, you can’t go so far as to conclude that “buying a nostalgic toy relieves stress” or “heals the heart.”
A toy can be a trigger that calls up past memories. It’s best to keep it to about that.
Reason 2: Being able to buy what you couldn’t as a child
As adults, we come to have “money we can decide how to spend” that we didn’t have as children.
“I wanted it but they wouldn’t buy it for me.” “I could only pick one.” “A friend had it and I was jealous.” Now, as the adult you’ve become, you can choose that item again for yourself.
In Happinet’s kidult survey too, reasons for buying include “I’ve loved it since childhood” and “I wanted it as a child but couldn’t buy it.”
（Source: Kidult Population Estimated at Around 5.35 Million | Happinet）
This isn’t simply about being able to buy in bulk.
As an adult, you can finally choose for yourself what you couldn’t have as a child. That sense of choosing on your own terms can be part of the appeal.
On the other hand, the feeling of “I want all of it, to make up for what I missed” is different from buying to the point of straining your current life. It’s precisely because you’re an adult that you need to set your own limits.
Reason 3: Collecting is fun in itself
Another feature of toys is that the fun becomes “completing a set” rather than wanting a single item.
With capsule toys, trading cards, miniatures and blind boxes, lining up a series completes a little world.
Within one series, colors and expressions differ. There are secret variants. The next item goes on sale. That’s where the fun of collecting over time comes from.
On the other hand, random products easily lead to “buying until the one you want shows up,” so it’s best not to treat the fun and your budget as separate things.
Reason 4: What you love becomes self-expression
These days, toys and characters aren’t necessarily enjoyed only inside the home.
Clipping a plushie to your bag. Matching your things to your favorite’s color. Photographing an acrylic stand with food or scenery. Sharing your collection on social media.
In behaviors like these, toys and character goods act as a small profile that shows “what it is I like.”
It’s not only “what you own”: expressing “what you say you love” has itself become part of the fun.
Reason 5: Sharing “what you love” with children and friends
For parenting-age readers, another thing not to overlook is sharing between parent and child.
A character the parent loved as a child gets turned into products again. Parent and child play the same game. They turn the capsule-toy dial together. The parent shows an old toy to the child.
In moments like these, toys become a conversation starter that connects generations.
Editor’s note
When a child is born, many parents find that rather than moving away from toys, their trips to the toy aisle pick up again. There, you may run into “I wanted this back then” or “I played with this too.”
What I notice watching children’s trends is that the line between “children’s culture” and “adults’ culture” has blurred more than before. Parents learn about new characters and games through their children, while children come to newly love what their parents once loved.
Seen not only as “an adult hobby separate from children,” but as a way adults reconnect with toys and play after becoming parents, kidult culture shows a different face.
What is the difference between children’s toys and “adults’ toys”?
Even for the same product, the reason for buying and the way it’s handled at home differ across “for the child,” “for the parent’s own hobby” and “shared between parent and child.”
| Item | Buying for the child | Buying for yourself | Sharing between parent and child |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main purpose | Play, interest, experience | Hobby, collecting, self-expression | Enjoying together |
| Who chooses | Child plus guardian | The adult buyer | Parent and child |
| Owner | The child | The adult | Decide in advance |
| How to think about the money | Child-rearing or gift spending, etc. | Hobby spending | Sort out within the household |
| Common worries | Age suitability, safety | Budget, storage | Ownership, lending, handling |
This table isn’t market statistics; it’s a way to think about handling toys at home. Rather than dividing children and adults by how much is spent or how often, it’s more practical to sort out “who it was bought for” and “how it’s handled at home.”
Buying for the child
With children’s toys, beyond “does the child want it,” the guardian’s judgment comes in — age suitability, safety, how it’s played with, whether it works at home.
They may be bought as birthday or Christmas presents, and toys are part of a household’s child-rearing spending.
So it’s no surprise if some parents find that “I can buy it if it’s for the child, but the moment it’s for myself, I suddenly start weighing whether I really need it.”
Buying for yourself
Toys an adult buys for themselves can basically be treated as a hobby.
Whether it’s a figure to display, a plushie, or a squishy to enjoy the feel of, the reason is simple: “I like it, so I want to have it.”
There’s no need to dismiss adults enjoying toys as “childish” or “a waste” in itself.
That said, the balance with the household’s living costs and necessary spending is a separate matter. Deciding on a range you can enjoy comfortably as a hobby also makes any guilt easier to handle.
Enjoying it together as a family
A little trickier is sharing between parent and child.
The child wants to touch a figure the parent bought. Something was collected together, yet the parent keeps only the rare items. It becomes unclear whose the gacha win is.
Small mix-ups like these can happen.
For expensive or fragile things, sorting them out in advance — “this is the adult’s collection,” “this is something we can play with together,” “this is yours” — makes it easier for both sides to understand.
Nui-katsu, gacha, nostalgic toys — what’s resonating with adults now?
Today’s kidult culture isn’t only reissues of old toys. Plushies, gacha, blind boxes, art toys and more — old and new toy cultures are spreading at the same time.
Nostalgic toys and revival products
Nostalgia fits especially well with the adult market: toys that today’s adults grew up with.
When old characters, games, cards and miniatures reappear in updated form, both the adults who knew them at the time and the children seeing them for the first time can enjoy them.
Taking childhood memory as the entry point while choosing again with your present-day taste — this is one way of enjoying that clearly captures kidult spending.
Nui-katsu and character goods
Plushies, too, are no longer only “something for a child to hold and play with.”
Clipping one to a bag, dressing it in clothes, taking it along on trips, photographing it, displaying it in a room — there are many ways to enjoy them.
For adults, a plushie can be closer to a way of bringing a favorite character into everyday life than to a toy.
Gacha and miniatures
Capsule toys are another genre making toys more appealing to adults.
Among products that reproduce food, home appliances and household goods in precise miniature, some can be fully enjoyed only by an adult who knows the motif — not just by children.
On the other hand, with products that have an element of randomness, “just one more” easily adds up.
When enjoying it with a child, deciding “how many times today” in advance makes it easier to stop even when the one you wanted doesn’t come out.
Art toys and blind boxes such as Labubu
Art toys and blind boxes have grown in popularity in recent years.
Labubu, one leading example, is a toy with a strong affinity for social media and fashion, on top of its character design and collectibility.
Not just “something to play with” but a mix of collecting, displaying, wearing and showing — it’s one symbolic example for understanding today’s kidult culture.
Squishies, Mellojoy and other toys you enjoy by touch
Beyond looking and collecting, some toys are about “touching.”
Squishies are made for enjoying a distinctive feel — softness, elasticity — and adults collect them too, not just children.
For a parent and child, you can also go beyond collecting store-bought items into making your own.
TamagoDaruma also shares parent-and-child play such as push-pops made with origami and squishies made with nano tape.
How to keep a toy hobby fun: five limits worth setting
The key with an adult toy hobby isn’t “being a fan”; it’s setting clear limits around spending, storage, limited-edition items and parent-child ownership, so the burden doesn’t outweigh the fun.
Set a hobby budget
The most straightforward step is to decide in advance how much to spend on the hobby.
Rather than “I’ll think about it when something I want shows up,” deciding “this month, up to this much” makes it easier to judge when you come across a limited or random product.
What matters isn’t the size of the amount, but that you can enjoy it in a way you’re satisfied with, within a range that doesn’t squeeze the household’s living and necessary spending.
Decide where to put it
With a collection, it’s not only money but “space” that becomes an issue.
Each one may be small, but plushies, figures and gacha grow in number the more you collect.
Setting a physical limit on your collection — “up to one shelf,” “as much as fits in this storage case” — is one method.
Separate “the parent’s,” “the child’s” and “shared”
Parent and child coming to love the same genre is a big part of what you can enjoy together.
On the other hand, when ownership becomes unclear, it can lead to friction.
To a small child in particular, a toy sitting in the house can look like “something okay to play with.”
If it’s a collection you want to treasure, it’s fine to say from the start, “this is Dad’s / Mom’s.” For shared things, it’s good to decide with your child how they’ll be handled.
Set a purchase limit on limited and random products
“Limited,” “secret” and “random” are elements that heighten the fun of collecting.
At the same time, “until the one I want comes out” makes the end hard to see.
With gacha, “three tries today”; with blind boxes, “two today” — setting a fixed number of tries or amount, rather than stopping only once the one you wanted comes out, makes it easier to manage.
This isn’t a rule only for children; it’s the same for adults.
Know the difference between buying to collect and buying to resell
With popular toys, prices sometimes rise on flea-market apps and the like after release.
Then the purpose can shift from “buying because I want it” to “buying because it might be worth more later.”
Letting go of things you no longer need isn’t the same as buying in the hope of a price rise.
Just pausing once to ask, “Do I actually want to keep this?” makes it easier to tell whether it’s shopping as a hobby or has turned into something else.
Five things to check before buying
- Do I want it because I truly like it?
- Am I choosing it out of nothing more than the “it’s limited” rush?
- Does it fit within this month’s hobby budget?
- Have I decided where to put it?
- Will it be the parent’s, the child’s, or shared?
It’s fine if you don’t have a clear answer to all of them. Pausing to think once creates a little room between “I want it” and “I’ll buy it right now.”
Frequently asked questions about kidults
Here are common questions about what “kidult” means and the market size, how it relates to nui-katsu and oshikatsu, and how to think about enjoying it as a family.
- Q. What is a kidult?
- It’s a blend of “Kid” and “Adult,” referring to adults who continue to enjoy toys, characters and the like as their own hobby.
- Q. From what age is someone a kidult?
- There’s no set age. The target range differs by survey. Happinet’s 2025 survey covered men and women aged 18 to 60.
- Q. How many kidults are there in Japan?
- Based on its 2025 survey, Happinet estimates about 5.354 million nationwide. This is an estimate based on the company’s survey conditions.
- Q. Why do adults come to want nostalgic toys?
- The reasons differ from person to person, but childhood memories, old longings and the fun of collecting are among them. In psychology, researchers have also studied the link between nostalgia and “self-continuity” — the sense of connection to your past, present and future self.
- Q. Does nui-katsu count as kidult culture?
- There’s no clear dividing line, but adults collecting or carrying plushies for their own enjoyment overlaps, in a broad sense, with kidult culture.
- Q. Does oshikatsu count as kidult culture?
- Not all oshikatsu does. That said, collecting a favorite’s plushies, figures and character toys overlaps with it.
- Q. Is an adult buying toys a form of escapism?
- Not necessarily. People buy toys for many reasons — nostalgia, collecting, self-expression, a hobby, connection with others. “An adult buying toys = escapism” shouldn’t be linked so simply.
- Q. How can I avoid overbuying gacha and blind boxes?
- Rather than “until the one I want comes out,” you can set an upper limit in advance on the number of tries or the budget — “three tries today,” “up to this much this month.” When enjoying it with a child, making the rule easy for both adult and child to follow makes it easier to keep up.
（Source: Kidult Population Estimated at Around 5.35 Million | Happinet）
There are fewer children, yet the toy market is at a record high. Looking at those numbers alone, it seems puzzling — but once you drop the assumption that toys are “products for children only,” the change happening now comes into view.
Toys for adults, nui-katsu, oshikatsu, gacha, retro revival, art toys. They may look like separate trends, but they share a common thread: continuing to enjoy what you love into adulthood has become more visible than before.
There’s no need to deny adults coming to like toys in itself. At the same time, “being a fan” and “buying without limit” are two different things.
Just sorting out budget, storage and parent-child ownership rules a little makes a hobby easier to enjoy for the long run.
And for parenting-age readers, toys have one more interesting role: what you loved as a child and what the child in front of you loves now, sitting side by side in the same home.
The rise of the kidult market is about more than “adults have started buying toys.” It also reflects a gradual shift in the boundaries of play and of “what you love” that used to separate children and adults.
At TamagoDaruma, rather than denying that change or endorsing it unconditionally, we want to keep thinking about a comfortable distance at which parents and children can each hold their own “what I love.”
