Maker record
Yonezawa
Yonezawa was a Japanese toy maker whose products included tinplate toys and, by the 1970s, plastic toys. Its range encompassed mechanical and electric toys, including robots, vehicles and ships. The company sold through Yonezawa Shokai, a toy wholesaler that supported Japanese manufacturers and exported their products. A 1957 order for a tinplate electric toy with a plastic component shows Yonezawa working with newer materials as Japanese toy production moved beyond metal.
- Founded
- 1945
- Countries
- Japan
- Locations
- Tokyo, Japan
- Founders
- Mr. Kosuge
The story of Yonezawa
Yonezawa Shokai operated as a toy wholesaler and buyer in Japan’s postwar toy trade. Tomiyama’s company history describes its president, Yoshitaka Yonezawa, financing a larger factory after a 1952 fire at the plant producing Tomiyama’s B-29 toy. The B-29 had been sold through Yonezawa Shokai and drew substantial demand in Japan and the United States.
By 1957, Yonezawa Toys was ordering new products as Japanese toy makers adopted plastics and electric mechanisms alongside tinplate. One example was a tinplate electric elephant toy with a plastic component. Yonezawa later produced tinplate robots, vehicles and ships, and shifted toward plastic toys. The company was absorbed by Sega in 1991; a specialist toy archive records the Yonezawa brand as discontinued in 1998.
