Kaneban to handle figure and toy design KANEBAN acquires 100% of the shares of PROSLINK, a figure and toy design company Significant progress toward complete domestic production and mass-production of figurines

Kaneban Corporation (Ome-shi, Tokyo; CEO: Hiroyuki Kaneko; hereafter "Kaneban"), a Japanese designer and manufacturer of character goods, has acquired 100% of the shares of PROSLINK Corporation (Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa; President: Naoyuki Sueno; hereafter "PROSLINK"), a designer and manufacturer of figures, plastic models and electronic toys. (Sagami City, Kanagawa Prefecture, President: Naoyuki Sueno, hereinafter "PROSLINK"), a designer of figurines and plastic model electronic toys, as of August 1, 2024.

PROSLINK Logo

Background of the Acquisition

The acquisition of Proslink is intended to meet growing domestic demand in the figure/plastic model field, where demand continues to be strong even with the recent depreciation of the yen, and to complement the product design that has been a bottleneck in the Kaneban Group's efforts to achieve full domestic production of figure/plastic models. This will enable the company to produce high-end and prize products.

This will make it possible to produce various grades of figures domestically, including high-end, prize, and lottery items.

Group Outlook

Proslink plans to combine its advanced product design capabilities with the Group's molding, injection molding, painting/printing, inspection, and packaging know-how to reorganize itself into an integrated corporate group that handles everything from planning proposals to design, molding, molding, coloring, and assembly. This acquisition will be a major step toward the "mass production of figures" in the domestic production process.

The group also intends to export the domestic figures manufactured by the group not only to Japan but also to North America and Asia, and will seek to earn foreign currencies by "manufacturing figures of Japanese domestic contents/characters in Japan and exporting them to overseas markets.

In addition to this acquisition of a subsidiary, the company will begin construction of a figure manufacturing plant in Tokyo to produce world-class "Made in Japan Figures" in terms of both price and quality in a one-year plan.

In addition, we plan to develop "figures completely made in Japan, including raw materials," using ethical materials made from rice cultivated by a qualified agricultural land-owning corporation, Chino Corporation, of which we acquired shares in May 2024.

On the other hand, Proslink will also work in earnest on electronic toys, a field in which it excels, and aims to expand its facilities and human resources with the aim of starting sales in 2026.

Kaneban Corporation

Kaneban was founded in 1997 by Kaneko, the current president of Kaneban.

Backed by the high level of technology cultivated in the sheet metal coating business, the company began manufacturing character goods centered on animation and video games in 2011. Currently, the company is engaged in integrated domestic production of high-quality goods on a scale of more than 10 million pieces per year.

Since 2020, the company has been actively pursuing M&A, and has acquired a domestic manufacturing company that specializes in molds, molding, etc. under its umbrella, with the aim of completely domestic production of plastic models, figures, and other three-dimensional character goods.

Kaneban Home Page: https://www.kaneban.jp/

ProsLink Co.

A toy design and prototype processing company headquartered in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

We have worked on product design for many toy, consumer electronics, and amusement equipment manufacturers, and are especially good at design/modeling of figures and plastic models.

ProsLink Home Page: http://prothlink.co.jp/