Firstly, my apologies if a thread of this nature already exists; would happily have this thread closed and pointed to the right thread.
Secondly, I wanted to use this thread to discuss the franchise in terms of the Japanese market, as well as popularity and who the consumer mainly could be. This will included a little bit of personal experience.
I am from England, but traveled to Tokyo, Japan in 2016 with my partner, and will be returning in March 2018. This said, quite obviously there are plenty of members that have been there a lot more than I have, or are currently there.
Before going, we had this exaggerated idea in our head that Pokémon would be pretty much everywhere we look. Obviously, we knew this wasn't going to be the case with mundane areas, like normal residential areas and what-not, but we were right to some degree. From a fare we found by pure chance on our first day, to curry houses, there were traces of the franchise everywhere.
We visited 2 Pokémon Center stores and 1 Pokémon Store (Narita Airport). Our favourite by a long shot was Tokyo Skytree. It wasn't quite as big as Mega Tokyo, but it was in a beautiful location and better kept. This could be down to the business of the store, as Mega Tokyo was noticeably busier. The customer base in Mega Tokyo seemed to be 70-80% Japanese, and 20-30% tourist, and about 90/10 split in Skytree. I would also like to note that around 70-80% were young adults. The times we visited were usually afternoon or evening, and even on one weekend, indicating that the young fans would not have been in school.
On our final day in Tokyo, Pokémon Sun & Moon were released. We headed to SofMap in Akihabara, where there was a large display outside the store selling copies of the game [see video]. Inside the store where purchases were being made, I did not see a single child purchasing the game. Just adults, though this may have been due to school times (it was around 11am). Many of these adults could have been purchasing the game for their children. We did see some young business men walking around the station with their 3DS in hand, and it'd be relatively safe to say what game they'd be playing.
I guess all of this really should have been quite obvious. Pokémon was a booming franchise, Pokémon GO had made it's way to smartphones only a few months prior, so of course there would be a considering amount of popularity for Pokémon in all ages.
Here is a video of all Pokémon related things I captured on our journey. This obviously isn't EVERYTHING Pokémon related we saw (we wanted to enjoy at least some of the trip not behind a phone camera haha):
In conclusion, I would love to hear anyone else in their experiences of Pokémon in Japan, as well as welcome any questions for myself or anyone with better experience to answer.
Secondly, I wanted to use this thread to discuss the franchise in terms of the Japanese market, as well as popularity and who the consumer mainly could be. This will included a little bit of personal experience.
I am from England, but traveled to Tokyo, Japan in 2016 with my partner, and will be returning in March 2018. This said, quite obviously there are plenty of members that have been there a lot more than I have, or are currently there.
Before going, we had this exaggerated idea in our head that Pokémon would be pretty much everywhere we look. Obviously, we knew this wasn't going to be the case with mundane areas, like normal residential areas and what-not, but we were right to some degree. From a fare we found by pure chance on our first day, to curry houses, there were traces of the franchise everywhere.
We visited 2 Pokémon Center stores and 1 Pokémon Store (Narita Airport). Our favourite by a long shot was Tokyo Skytree. It wasn't quite as big as Mega Tokyo, but it was in a beautiful location and better kept. This could be down to the business of the store, as Mega Tokyo was noticeably busier. The customer base in Mega Tokyo seemed to be 70-80% Japanese, and 20-30% tourist, and about 90/10 split in Skytree. I would also like to note that around 70-80% were young adults. The times we visited were usually afternoon or evening, and even on one weekend, indicating that the young fans would not have been in school.
On our final day in Tokyo, Pokémon Sun & Moon were released. We headed to SofMap in Akihabara, where there was a large display outside the store selling copies of the game [see video]. Inside the store where purchases were being made, I did not see a single child purchasing the game. Just adults, though this may have been due to school times (it was around 11am). Many of these adults could have been purchasing the game for their children. We did see some young business men walking around the station with their 3DS in hand, and it'd be relatively safe to say what game they'd be playing.
I guess all of this really should have been quite obvious. Pokémon was a booming franchise, Pokémon GO had made it's way to smartphones only a few months prior, so of course there would be a considering amount of popularity for Pokémon in all ages.
Here is a video of all Pokémon related things I captured on our journey. This obviously isn't EVERYTHING Pokémon related we saw (we wanted to enjoy at least some of the trip not behind a phone camera haha):
In conclusion, I would love to hear anyone else in their experiences of Pokémon in Japan, as well as welcome any questions for myself or anyone with better experience to answer.