Japan’s capsule toy industry has come a long way from the corner of the supermarket, as it enjoys a new boom at home that is spurring multiple market players to set their sights on overseas expansion.

First imported from America in 1965, capsule toys – or gachapon – really caught the Japanese imagination in the 1970s and rapidly spread across the country. The machines were initially set up in front ...

Bandai Namco will open its flagship Gashapon capsule toy store in Ikebukuro on February 26, 2021. The store will offer a wide variety of capsule toys, including many store-exclusives. The store will ...

Japan has a well-deserved reputation as the world’s most enthusiastic country when it comes to vending machines. In downtown Tokyo, it seems like you can find a machine selling drinks on just about ...

"Gashapon Department Store Ikebukuro Sohonten," a capsule toy specialty store, is seen in Tokyo's Toshima Ward, Aug. 1, 2025. (Mainichi/Reina Kamoda) TOKYO -- The capsule toy market in Japan has seen ...

No longer catering only to children, a store in Tokyo's Harajuku district offering about 1,700 capsule toy dispensers on its two floors drew Jo Hyeon-jeong in a recent day. The 25-year-old South ...

Some cute and functional Sega capsule toys will be on the market soon. Toymaker IP4 Inc is partnering with Sega to release these tissue box covers in Japan on November 19, 2020. The designs of the ...