Making its third year exhibiting at North America's largest anime convention, Anime Expo, TAKARATOMY introduced a number of new products for the West. We got a chance to sit down with TAKARATOMY Representative Director, President & CEO Akio Tomiyama to discuss how a century of traditional toymaking fits into today’s fast-paced digital landscape. Read about how the toy giant is keeping the spirit of Asobi alive, engineering toys for shorter modern attention spans, and their plans for a massive global rebrand for collectors worldwide.

T-ONO: TAKARATOMY has a 100-year history of creating interactive physical toys; however, the current generation of younger consumers is growing up in an era heavily dominated by digital entertainment and screens. What strategies are you looking at to preserve and evolve the traditional spirit of Asobi (play), and how do you see physical toys and digital platforms successfully coexisting?

Akio Tomiyama: Even though the digital market is expanding rapidly, we have found that people are still interested in physical interaction. In-person events where fans gather to play with tangible toys remain immensely popular.

The way we approach Asobi moving forward is to place a heavy emphasis on preserving and respecting these physical play spaces. Rather than viewing digital platforms as a threat, our core strategic theme is to find creative ways to seamlessly fuse physical toys with the digital world. Ensuring these two spaces successfully coexist is our most important mission for the next generation.

T-ONO: Speaking of evolving the brand, last year your team members mentioned a specific focus on growing your presence. Can you tell us how some of the product lines you featured last year, which are noticeably absent from the floor today, like T-SPARK, are currently doing? Where do you see the brand going in the West over the next year?

Tomiyama: We plan to continuously and systematically expand T-SPARK, heavily focusing on both the North American and Asian markets, including China. For fans of our legacy properties, we are actively preparing entirely new developments and iterations for iconic titles, specifically ZOIDS and Diaclone. We want to keep building on that momentum.

T-ONO: We noticed that Licca-chan is prominently featured at your booth this year. Given how popular she is in Japan, what unique elements do you believe will set her apart from the competition in the US, especially from a design and marketing standpoint?

Tomiyama: The fashion doll market is incredibly crowded, but we believe that when you introduce a genuinely fresh perspective, the potential to grow is immense.

Of course, there are massive existing competitors in that space; however, Licca-chan’s ultimate strength is its authentic "Japanese kawaii" design aesthetic. Everything from the specific facial styling, the packaging choices, and even the hair has been carefully considered. We actually tested this appeal here at Anime Expo with our special Hatsune Miku collaboration doll, and it has been selling incredibly well. It proves there is a very unique, open position for her.

T-ONO: Another huge highlight in the Exhibit Hall this year is T-ARTS' trademark Gacha machines. Western collectors are increasingly obsessed with surprise-style collectibles such as blind boxes and capsule machines. What is your current roadmap or long-term plan for the Gacha machines distributed in the US?

Tomiyama: In North America, our goal is sustained, long-term growth. We aim for sustainable, long-term growth in North America. To expand the Gacha locations, we are collaborating with Mitsubishi Corporation and SEGA, while also working closely with GENDA and Kiddleton.

The biggest hurdle right now is cultural. In the United States, the mainstream consumer doesn't yet have an established habit of inserting coins into a machine specifically to turn a crank for a randomized capsule toy. We have to build that culture from scratch. It’s a long-term initiative that will take time and patience, but seeing the passionate reaction from fans here at Anime Expo gives us tremendous confidence to keep expanding.

T-ONO: Some of your team members here know I grew up playing with a lot of TAKARATOMY toys, such as the B-Daman and the Yusha series. Today, we see that a lot of toy lines are more aimed toward collectors, like adults or "kidults". Especially now with inflation, tariffs, and manufacturing cost increases, what strategies is TAKARATOMY looking at to make toys affordable, especially your core lines, for the younger generations growing up now?

Tomiyama: To continue providing high-quality toys at accessible price points, we are continuously optimizing our manufacturing infrastructure. By diversifying our production network, we can respond flexibly to changes in the business environment while maintaining product quality, stable supply, and affordable pricing.

T-ONO: We’re seeing a wave of new global properties of transforming robots, like those from South Korea, that are just now entering the US market. As someone deeply embedded in robot design with lines like Jobraver, what do you feel is TAKARATOMY's ultimate competitive edge to maintain your lead?

Tomiyama: TAKARATOMY has been engineering transforming robot toys for over 40 years. Transformers itself has been a core part of our DNA for over four decades. Because of that, the depth of our mechanical R&D and proprietary engineering knowledge is incredibly vast.

The technologies and development philosophy we have cultivated throughout our long history have become an integral part of our company and continue to guide us today. Furthermore, our legacy properties like ZOIDS, where we blend intricate, motor-driven movements with mechanical action, remain unique. I believe our ultimate edge is our uncompromising dedication to intricate Japanese design details and mechanical depth.

T-ONO: Talking from an R&D standpoint, I think I've read that you said one of the most difficult things you've worked on was the Ghibli TOMICA series. Apart from that, were there any other products or prototypes that you thought, "This is absolutely impossible," but ultimately it worked?

Tomiyama: [Laughs] Ghibli TOMICAs!

Yes, well, BEYBLADE X was exactly that kind of hurdle. With our previous line, Beyblade Burst, we introduced an extreme mechanical gimmick where the tops would literally burst apart during battle in a destructive way. It was a massive innovation, but it left our engineering team facing a wall. The sentiment was: "We’ve hit the absolute limit. What could we possibly do for the next series?"

The breakthrough was the invention of our new X-Celerator Gear System. We built on the core identity of Beyblade Burst but engineered a mechanism that dramatically increases the speed and tempo of the battle.

To put it simply, it's like TikTok, shifting the focus from long-form content to enjoying shorter, faster bursts of entertainment. In older generations, a match could easily take up to one or three minutes. With BEYBLADE X, the playtime is condensed into a hype fast action because the tempo is so much quicker.

T-ONO: Right, because attention spans have gotten significantly shorter globally. So engineering a faster, high-tempo game to deliver that instant, casual excitement makes perfect sense.

Tomiyama: Yes, translating that into a shorter playtime format was a massive step for us, and the results have allowed everyone to enjoy the game in a much more casual, fun way. Getting to that final idea took a massive amount of internal struggle, but the final product speaks for itself.

T-ONO: As the CEO of one of the world's most iconic toy manufacturers, people must imagine you have an incredible workspace. What does your actual office look like, and what do you typically keep in it?

Do you have any specific toys or items you look at every day? I heard you had a soft spot for the classic Tomica Skyline Silhouette.

Tomiyama: [Laughs] Aside from the inevitable mountains of Excel files and PowerPoint presentations?

My office actually features quite a few premium items from across the industry! For example, I have BANDAI SPIRITS' high-end Kaitai Shouki MSN-04 Sazabi Gundam figure, which costs over 100,000 yen and features incredible mechanical detail. I also keep a copy of the Chogokin and ZOIDS Liger Zero collaboration figure.

Of course, I have plenty of our own flagship TAKARATOMY products on display, alongside tributes to my childhood superheroes, the legendary Nissan Skyline and GT-R sports cars, which I still deeply admire to this day.

T-ONO: Is there any message you’d like to give?

Tomiyama: I have a very important announcement to share. Effective April 1, 2027, our official English company name will transition from "TOMY" to TAKARATOMY.

When TAKARA and TOMY originally merged twenty years ago, it was a complex transition, and the internal decision was made to retain "TOMY" for international branding and business cards, despite the brand being legally known as TAKARATOMY within Japan.

Now, marking our 20th anniversary since the merger, we are completely unifying our identity across all components. We want to face the world as a singular, cohesive brand, delivering the ultimate joy of Asobi (play) under one unified name to children and collectors across the entire globe.