From Tomica to Tamagotchi, Japanese toys take over Taiping

For anyone who spent part of childhood feeding a Tamagotchi, launching a Beyblade or watching Doraemon, a new exhibition in Taiping may feel rather familiar.

“Omocha: Japanese Toys Today”, now running at Perak Museum, brings together more than 70 types of contemporary Japanese toys, from long-established favourites such as Tomica and Plarail to characters including Ultraman, Mario, Godzilla and Anpanman.

But the exhibition is interested in more than nostalgia: organised by Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur (JFKL), it looks at how toys reflect wider aspects of Japanese culture.

This includes the country’s enthusiasm for miniaturisation, storytelling, character design, technology and what might simply be described as a fondness for making things irresistibly cute.

Explanatory panels and videos accompany the displays, placing familiar playthings within their historical and cultural context. The travelling exhibition – JFKL’s first major international showcase devoted specifically to contemporary Japanese toys – has already visited several Southeast Asian countries.

Some of the most recognisable exhibits trace how Japanese toy-making has moved alongside changes in everyday life and technology. A toy train such as Plarail turns transport into miniature play, while Tamagotchi transformed a tiny digital screen into something children were expected to feed, care for and worry about.

Beyblade, meanwhile, took the simple spinning top and turned it into a competitive global phenomenon.

Character toys tell a different story, reflecting Japan’s long relationship between toys, animation, television and popular culture.

Yet not everything feels entirely foreign. At the exhibition’s opening, JFKL director Tsukamoto Norihisa pointed to similarities between traditional Japanese and Malaysian games.

Otedama, played with small beanbags, has echoes of Batu Seremban (five stones), while the Japanese koma finds an obvious counterpart in the gasing.

That resemblance is a useful reminder that children across cultures have often arrived at surprisingly similar ways to play.

For adult visitors, meanwhile, the attraction may lie partly in recognising just how deeply Japanese toys have already entered Malaysian childhoods. Previous editions of the travelling exhibition have prompted visitors to remark that toys they had long regarded as familiar parts of everyday life were, in fact, Japanese creations.

After Taiping, Omocha is expected to travel to Kuala Lumpur.

Whether visitors come for the technology, the miniature worlds or simply the pleasure of spotting a childhood favourite, the exhibition makes a convincing case for taking toys seriously.

A plaything can be more than something designed to occupy a child for an afternoon; it can also reveal what a society finds funny, beautiful, ingenious, and worth passing from one generation to the next.

‘Omocha: Japanese Toys Today’ (until Dec 13)

Perak Museum
Jalan Taming Sari,
34000 Taiping, Perak

Opening hours: 9am-5pm

Admission: RM2 for adults, children under 12 enter for free

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