Key Initiatives
As the operator of multiple businesses in Japan and around the world, the TOMY Group participates in many different community activities and seeks to develop as a company that focuses on growing in tandem with local communities.
Katsushika City in Tokyo
Since opening a factory in the former Honden Tateishi-cho, Katsushika City in 1941, we have continued to dispatch toys from Katsushika to all parts of the globe.
Local elementary school children created a challenging stone mosaic on the driveway when we built the new head office in 2006. Our toy-filled display window has become a fun landmark for passing families and pedestrians, and serves as a great reminder of Katsushika City’s history as a toy-making town.
In July 2017, we signed an agreement with Katsushika City to revitalize the local area. Building on past collaboration in the Halloween parade and our elementary school visiting lessons, we wanted to see what else we could do to further revitalize the local community. We conducted various joint projects and events, including the “Katsushika Hobytory *1: TOMY and the toy-making town of Katsushika” special exhibition at the Katsushika City Museum. We actively cooperate with various events hosted by the Katsushika City Office to help promote social contributions and revitalize the local area. To help advertise the area’s expertise in manufacturing toys and other products, we support the city office’s Toy Idea Contest for elementary school students, which has been running since 1992. Our Eco Toy prize is awarded to the creators of the most unique toy concepts in the competition. We hold a uchimizu *2 event on Sakura Street just outside our head office as part of our contribution to the tateishi shopping street festival in every September. We also run a free toy hospital once a month on behalf of the city office.
Mibu Toy Town in Tochigi
Around 1960, TOMY founder Eiichiro Tomiyama found himself wrestling with a stubborn problem as chairman of the Tokyo Toy Export Manufacturers’ Cooperative Association. Japan had grown into the world’s second largest toy manufacturer behind the United States, but two thirds of toys manufactured in Japan were exported, and the majority of those exports were metallic toys manufactured in factories in Tokyo shitamachi area. At the time, Japan was being struck by powerful typhoons nearly every year, which caused huge damage all over Japan. Eiichiro Tomiyama thought, if a powerful typhoon hit the low-lying shitamachi area, it would inflict huge damage on the local toy-making industry, but would also undoubtedly disrupt the global toy market. He started to push for the collective relocation of the toy factories. In 1965, the Toy Export Manufacturers’ Industrial Park opened in the town of Mibu, in Shimotsuga, Tochigi prefecture.
Toy production has since moved offshore, but we continue to foster deep ties with Mibu through the Toy Park Cooperative Association, helping revitalize Toy Town by interacting with the local community. The annual December Toy Park bazaar is a lively event, buzzing with shoppers looking to buy toys for Christmas. We take part in the bazaar every year as a great way of interacting with the community. We also support Mibu’s furusato nozei or hometown tax system for promoting municipal donations by providing toy sets and model railways to send as thankyou gifts to donors.
KIDDY LAND Co., Ltd.
KIDDY LAND operates specialty stores retailing toys, fancy goods, character merchandise and books. All KIDDY LAND stores are members of the local merchants’ associations and actively engaged in communities.
The KIDDY LAND Harajuku flagship store takes part in the annual Omotesando Halloween parade and other local events. From 2016, the store has supported the Japanese Red Cross Society’s Red Light-up Project by bathing the storefront in red light on May 8th. The project is designed to build awareness of Red Cross Society activities as a dedicated advocate of humanity and human dignity.
TOMYTEC CO., LTD.
TOMYTEC, based in the town of Mibu, in eastern Japan’s Tochigi prefecture, participates every year in the local Zero Trash Campaign sponsored by the Omocha-no-Machi (Toy Town) Association. The 2020 event was canceled due to COVID-19, so we held a local cleanup event of our own instead.
TOMY International, Inc.
TOMY International designs and markets toys in the United States and Europe, and spearheads community-related activities across those regions.
In the United Kingdom, we donate toys through charitable organizations and participate in fund-raising events for underprivileged children and children with disabilities. We also donate to organizations that support research into breast cancer. In the United States, we donate toys to families and children in need of support so that all children can experience the joy of play.
