Highlights and Surprises
Shelly Liu／Jasmin Zhuang
The 7th Events & Amusement Expo Tokyo (E&A) 2020, organized by Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd., was successfully held at Makuhari Messe, Japan from February 5-7. During the same period, there were 3 other shows Local Value Creation Expo, Live Entertainment Expo Tokyo, as well as Sports Business Expo Tokyo, with more than 500 exhibitors gathering together. GTI firstly participated in the E&A to witness the first grand meeting of the entertainment industry in Japan this early spring.

According to the official data, there were a total of 174 exhibitors at the E&A 2020 and exhibition content covered 9 aspects: entertainment/theme park amusement equipment, water equipment, inflatable toys, anime, activity equipment/props, stage equipment/decoration, promotion goods/props, event planning/implementation services, security solutions. It not only attracted a large number of professional buyers from large leisure facilities, shopping centers, tourist attractions and resorts but also the local governments and developers. Figures show that the number of visitors reached a record high of 35,467, which was an increase of 9,595 over the previous edition.

The highlight of this exhibition was the new zone “Amusement World”, which brought together some international manufacturers from Australia, Italy, Canada, Germany, Turkey, France, Austria and the Netherlands. Among these manufacturers, there were well-known VR enterprise Holpgate and water park equipment company ProSlide Technology. The “Amusement World”, greatly complimented by many people and gathered a large number of equipment, merchandise, large amusement toys, planning and various related services for entertainment activities, is a brand-new plan launched by the organizer of the E&A for operators from leisure and amusement facilities as well as theme parks. What’s more, it is said that this zone will be reserved for the next exhibition with the support of exhibitors and visitors.

Moreover, some wonderful forums & lectures were also held at the E&A in promoting trade exchanges and cooperation. Discussions on hot topics like “From the Perspective of Entertainment Viewing Disney Show Management” and “Global Trends in the Theme Park and Amusement Industry” were launched through inviting several industry leaders such as the Entertainment Director of Walt Disney Attractions Japan, Ltd. Paul Rivet and the former President of IAPPA Dennis Speigel.

In recent years, the global entertainment market has been generally growing in a prosperity. Although the industry has been affected slightly by the COVID-19, most entertainment industry practitioners including the organizer of E&A and GTI are still have confidence to the industry and believe that the industry will recover sooner or later after the pandemic. We can see this hope because of the busy scene of the E&A. GTI was warmly welcomed by those active services operators, real estate developers and amusement park operators. In addition, our two GTI Expos also got pretty good responses. Meanwhile, in order to further study the development trend of the entertainment industry in Japan, GTI also visited the show organizer and many exhibitors.

Yamato Matsukawa, President of Kita Nihon Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd. (KNT) said that it was the second time that they have attended the show and felt that this year's exhibition was a good one. The E&A and Live Entertainment Expo Tokyo attracted plenty of visitors. However, the current amusement park market is more depressed, because large site relatively requires large investment. There is a mixed-race Japanese who has been recently voted the best player in the NBA for the first time in Japan's history, so that basketball machines are selling well. Presently, the company will take the current popular trend into consideration and combine with the needs of customers to develop their products. It put large and mini tabletop crane machines and basketball machines on display.

For children’s learning, BBmedia’s business projects include fine arts design, website planning. The company is responsible for software development and works with other manufacturers. The VR insect-catching game was very popular and received quite a lot of inquiries.

“The crane machines and gashapon machines were created in conjunction with other content manufacturers,” said Hiromi Sumiya, from the Business Planning Department of Fukuya. “Customers are sure to be able to catch dolls after payment when playing one of our crane machines. Basically, this kind of product is used for idols who can hold activities that allow fans to play with them at the scene.”

BANDAI was at the Sports Business Expo Tokyo and mainly introduced two kinds of gashapon machines which can be played through payment by Japanese Suica or WeChat. Currently, they are placed in the Odaiba but have not been launched in China.

KOEI, a company with a history of 50 years, participated in the exhibition again after 5 years. There were VR machines, shooting game machines and inflatables at their booth. The company's main product is inflatable and has related factories in China.

Turkish water equipment manufacturer Polin Waterparks introduced its products with wonderful videos. It was the first time that they have participated in the exhibition and have agents in Japan to help promotion.

The booth of Frink was actually jointly exhibited by four manufacturers. One of their products can be projected in 360° and presents a 3D effect. Also, VR telescope can be used to view scenic spots through image projection and AI technology by adding history and characters to touch, control and talk with each other.

Aromajoin Corp., established in 2015, has researched and developed 6 kinds of fragrance through studying 5 senses. Generally, the fragrance is made of water but they use air. One fragrance product sells 5000Yen (329RMB). You just need to spray 3 seconds at a time and can spray 250 times a day, with each fragrance lasting 3 to 6 months before being used up. They led buyers to smell the fragrance in person through VR headsets. Presently, 207 sets of products have been sold at home and abroad.

SANWA Group, a 50-year old enterprise in Japan, started to operate VR products in 2008 after first participating in the events organization and leasing industry 10 years ago. This was the first time that the company has participated in the show. Their VR products were themed on such things as fire training and haunted house games for idol groups communication, and the response has been good. It began to expand in the Japanese market in March this year.

Three years ago, RADIX started developing projectors and games-related products that use the concept of playing to exercise. Through playing, you can know how many calories you have consumed. They said the exhibition and final results were quite good.

The E&A organiser said they will try to do better at the next show. The 8th E&A expo will be held again at Makuhari Messe, Japan from February 24 to 26, 2021.