Capsule toy

As of 2023, with its diversification, active manufacturing of products and machinery as well as installation of wholesale machines, capsule toys are attracting attention as a new industry.

Since the 2000s, there have been specialty stores that exclusively feature dozens to over one hundred capsule vending machines.

[7] There are vending machines where coins are inserted and a dial is turned to purchase items not contained in capsules.

Additionally, there are also machines that have a chance to dispense special prizes that are too large or valuable to be included directly within a capsule.

For non-winning items, there are often participation prizes like Glico’s bonuses (similar to small toys previously common in cereal boxes in the U.S.).

While there are many niche and geeky products based on dramas, manga, anime, and games, there is also a wide variety of items ranging from traditional children's toys to realistic and surreal ones.

Furthermore, due to the growing societal awareness of promoting the healthy development of youth, companies have voluntarily been enforcing self-regulation by introducing age restrictions to limit the purchase of products featuring weapons or unsuitable character figures to ages 15 and above.

Since the 2000s, some capsule vending machines installed in tourist areas and specific regions have included limited-edition products (pins, straps, drawstring bags, coupons, etc.)

[4][5][6] Japan Airlines (JAL) has previously offered limited edition capsule toys containing parts from retired aircraft.

Stemming from the aforementioned randomized sales system, where the purchased items are not revealed until they are dispensed, video games, especially social network games, also began to sell non-physical, in-game items and characters in this lottery-style sales method.

These game types and other systems across the internet are often referred to as XYZ-gacha, where the XYZ is substituted with such words as avatar, item, complete, and other product names.