Toys aren't just for kids anymore in Japan

By Mayumi Negishi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Hideaki Asada bought his second radio-controlled helicopter in two months last week. The first one broke after his 8-year-old son, Keito, crashed the toy during landing.

"This one is just for me. Keito has shown he can't be trusted yet," said Asada, 39. Dad likes to fly the 15-centimetre (6-inch) chopper at night, after a long day in the accounting division in an IT consulting company.

"It has a searchlight," he said.

With rotor blades that whir with a flick of a switch, it can hover, veer right or left and stay in the air for two hours. Asada's chopper, made by Taiyo Kogyo Co Ltd, is one of several now on market, at prices that range from about 4,000 yen to under 10,000 yen ($35 to $87).

As the population ages and video games provide stiff competition, this holiday season Japanese toymakers are targeting adults like Asada with a line-up of toys that play to their childhood nostalgia as well as their love of high-tech.

CCP Co Ltd, a unit of toymaker Bandai Co Ltd and supplier of radio-controlled choppers to U.S. toymakers, plans to equip their latest models with infrared rays to fly combat missions, retailers said.

"That's going to be big. Already there are weekends when we run out of stock of the newest models," said Manabu Kamamura, who works in the toy section of Yodobashi Camera Co in Tokyo's Akihabara district, which has a cluster of electronics stores.

The customers are usually men, ranging in age from late 20s to 50s, Kamamura said.