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Japan Retro Toy Museum Closes Because Customers Keep Breaking Things
The owner says he’s “heartbroken” that he has to close the toy museum in Niigata Prefecture because some parents can’t control their kids.
This is why we can’t have nice things. A toy museum in Niigata Prefecture is closing in February because its owner says customers can’t help themselves from breaking stuff and stealing parts.
The Izumozaki Retro Museum in Izumozaki, Niigata Prefecture specializes in collecting toys from Japan’s Showa era (1926–1989). Owner Nagano Kenichi says on the Museum’s website that he wanted to keep this era of analog toys alive for a generation that’s grown up on digital entertainment.
However, that’s proven impossible due to the behavior of some customers. Nagano showed NST TV in Niigata multiple toys where customers had broken off and stolen parts. One game was missing a button, which Nagano told reporters he discovered just the day before.
Nagano has tried his best to keep the games in one piece. However, it’s a lot of manual labor, given that no one makes parts for any of the old products he stores.
He says he’s struggled to get some parents to control their kids. In one case, Nagano says, he asked a parent whose child dropped a toy to help the child be more careful. The parent snapped, “Then you…
