{"id":65410,"date":"2026-04-18T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=65410"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:10:52","slug":"almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike\u00a0random and &#8220;blind bag&#8221; merch, but\u00a0the\u00a0majority still buys it, large-scale survey shows\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A\u00a0recent study\u00a0conducted by\u00a0Hamaru Strategy, a Japanese company in the IP business,\u00a0surveyed\u00a035,866\u00a0people\u00a0on what they think about\u00a0\u201crandom\u00a0goods.\u201d\u00a0This refers to products like\u00a0collectible\u00a0anime\u00a0charms\u00a0and other\u00a0merch\u00a0where you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know what character or\u00a0design\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0get until after\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0bought and unsealed it  (in other words, merch sold in the blind bag format).\u00a0Although the sales method is widespread in Japan, it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0come as a shocker that\u00a0a majority of\u00a0people\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0appreciate\u00a0it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As reported by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kai-you.net\/article\/95169\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kai-You<\/a>, out of the 35\u00a0thousand survey\u00a0respondents, 89.9% said they disliked or strongly disliked random goods. On the other hand,\u00a0nearly all\u00a0respondents\u00a0admitted to buying them.\u00a0Unsurprisingly, the main reasons people cited for their dislike of random merch\u00a0were\u00a0\u201cthe\u00a0possibility\u00a0of not getting the product you want\u201d (98.5%) and\u00a0\u201cit costs more than regular merch\u201d (91.6%). While random merch\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0inherently more expensive, the latter\u00a0reason cited\u00a0likely refers\u00a0to the need to make several purchases until you get lucky.\u00a0Not to mention that many\u00a0people\u00a0(63.3%, to be\u00a0exact)\u00a0resort to buying the item they want from resellers, which\u00a0comes at an above-retail price.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While\u00a0random merch is\u00a0a convenient strategy\u00a0for companies to\u00a0increase sales volume and prevent less popular designs from becoming dead stock,\u00a0it seems its use\u00a0can even negatively affect the image of the\u00a0content\u00a0associated\u00a0with it. According to the survey,\u00a085.2% of respondents said their impression of an IP worsened due to random merch sales.\u00a0Additionally, 89.7% said they would even be willing to pay a higher price if they could choose the product they wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, this survey&nbsp;comes in response to a similar study published by Bandai Namco\u2019s toy and hobby business&nbsp;(Bandai Spirits) back in March.&nbsp;Although it focused on&nbsp;practically the&nbsp;same topic, Bandai&nbsp;Spirits\u2019s&nbsp;report&nbsp;was met with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bandai_spirits\/status\/2036263786433356256\/quotes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">immense backlash on social media<\/a>, as&nbsp;Japanese&nbsp;users found it to be excessively biased towards&nbsp;random merch&nbsp;in a favorable light.&nbsp;Since the survey report mostly focused on positive&nbsp;sentiments&nbsp;(like the thrill&nbsp;of&nbsp;trying your luck and drawing your desired item)&nbsp;and emphasizing how often people&nbsp;purchase&nbsp;random merch,&nbsp;many found it to be skewed representation of actual consumer sentiment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-archive-honkai-star-rail-and-nikke-merch-pulled-from-major-retailer-in-japan-users-speculate-excessive-blind-bag-and-gacha-style-products-are-to-blame\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Blue Archive, Honkai: Star Rail and NIKKE merch pulled from major retailer in Japan. Users&nbsp;speculate&nbsp;excessive blind-bag and \u201cgacha\u201d-style products are to blame<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A study by Hamaru Strategy surveyed over 35 thousand Japanese consumers on their opinions of random\/blind-buy merch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":65420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-65410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike\u00a0random and &quot;blind bag&quot; merch, but\u00a0the\u00a0majority still buys it, large-scale survey shows\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A study by Hamaru Strategy surveyed over 35 thousand Japanese consumers on their opinions of random\/blind-buy merch.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike\u00a0random and &quot;blind bag&quot; merch, but\u00a0the\u00a0majority still buys it, large-scale survey shows\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A study by Hamaru Strategy surveyed over 35 thousand Japanese consumers on their opinions of random\/blind-buy merch.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260417-65410-header-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1282\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"823\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike\u00a0random and \"blind bag\" merch, but\u00a0the\u00a0majority still buys it, large-scale survey shows\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"A study by Hamaru Strategy surveyed over 35 thousand Japanese consumers on their opinions of random\/blind-buy merch.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike\u00a0random and \"blind bag\" merch, but\u00a0the\u00a0majority still buys it, large-scale survey shows\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"A study by Hamaru Strategy surveyed over 35 thousand Japanese consumers on their opinions of random\/blind-buy merch.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-04-17T16:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1282,"height":823,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260417-65410-header-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/almost-90-of-japanese-people-dislike-random-and-blind-bag-merch-but-the-majority-still-buys-it-large-scale-survey-shows\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike\u00a0random and &#8220;blind bag&#8221; 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65423,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410\/revisions\/65423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}