I’m assuming that most toys from plushies and little trinkets to etc. are actually made in China in general rather Japan? Kind of disappointing to turn up at a pokemon centre shop or to win a crane game for something not produced in Japan, right? I suppose the exception would be anime figures but even then I bet China creates many, though maybe one could tell the difference? China does make some quality items too of course.
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Made in China or Vietnam.
I think almost all the reasonable/cheap products are made in China or Vietnam.
I seriously don’t know which year you are living in but this is how the current capitalist economy works in most of the world.
Crane game figures are usually of low quality. They are molded and cheaply painted, in contrast to some higher quality 300$ 3D printed and hand painted figure. I am pretty sure I have seen them on alibaba too. You can bet they are all made in China.
None of that stuff is made in Japan. It’s all made overseas, same as anywhere else in the world.
It depends. Relative to the rest of the world, not nearly as much of that stuff in Japan is made in China, but it’s still a decent percentage.
It’s getting common for arcades to have a sample plushie outside of each machine now, so you can always check the tag before trying (although even visually the Japanese-made ones are pretty easy to spot)
Even China is getting expensive these days so companies are branching out to Vietnam or Bangladesh (I’ve seen clothing items from these countries)
I try to buy made-in-Japan as much as possible for a number of reasons (not supporting other countries, emissions and carbon output, etc.), but it’s just way too expensive for some things even on a fairly decent salary. There’s some stuff I’m not going to pay 10x or 20x for, especially for certain more expensive items (most items are more like 2x-5x price).
Wait till you find out most of the pachinko parlors are Korean.
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But in terms of Chinese manufacturing, Japanese companies hate dealing with Chinese factories — but the cost of goods between the two is stark. I’ve had to force my Japanese suppliers to source from China when their CoGs came back ridiculously high. Ironically even their Japanese sub-tier suppliers were still probably getting the base components/assemblies from China themselves and just marking it up with typical Japan non-value add overhead.
Made in China is considered good quality nowadays…. You should see the quality of made in Sri Lanka products…
Honest question: Why does it matter where your Pokemon doll was stitched together?
At some point, some components of almost everything you have and use comes from another country. If you want something even mostly made in Japan, they exist but command a significant price premium. Even those contain components sourced from cheaper countries. Welcome to global capitalism.
even more expensive stuff like items produced by Medicom Toy are made in China