Primopuel is a knee-high Japanese doll with soft, apple cheeks and big black button eyes. It comes in green and pink. When you cuddle it or talk to it, it talks back. It is for grandmothers.
The doll, an award-winner at the Tokyo Toy Show last month, is generating new sales among the elderly for creator Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. as the birthrate drops. Japan is the first developed country to register more annual deaths than births and the elderly will outnumber children 2-to-1 within five years, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
"There just aren't as many kids anymore," said Fumiaki Ibuki, 57, a member of the committee that plans the Tokyo Toy Show. "The industry is addressing the problem by widening its target age. The idea is toys aren't just for kids."