Tomy

Tomy Company, Ltd. (株式会社タカラトミー, Kabushikigaisha takaratomī, Takara Tomy) is a Japanese toy, children's merchandise and entertainment company created from the merger of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Takara (founded in 1955). Merged on March 1, 2006, the company has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.

History and corporate name

The decision to use the Tomy name in English, yet the Takara-Tomy name in Japanese, was made for pragmatic reasons. Tomy has built considerable brand recognition internationally, particularly in the area of infant and preschool products, where brand trust is very important. On the other hand, most of Takara's international hit products (Microman, Transformers, Battle Beasts, Beyblade, B-Daman, et al.) have been sold and branded by other companies, most notably, Hasbro. Therefore, going through the costly process of registering and or changing the company name in all the countries where Tomy does business would have been expensive and unproductive. Thus, with the merged company's international subsidiaries continuing to use the Tomy name, it seemed appropriate to keep a domestic English name which matched that of the international subsidiaries.