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[1] A worn-out Pikachu plushie and a stained stuffed animal can get a new lease on life. A Japanese laundry service is making beloved toys squeaky clean again. Masakazu Shimura is a cleaning professional with three decades of experience. He gave one stuffed Pokemon, already in good condition, a steam shower. Afterwards, he gave it a gentle bubble scrub and brushed it.
[2] Videos showing how carefully the stuffed toys are cleaned at Cleaning Yonmarusan have fascinated fans on social media. These viral videos have made the shop famous. They have attracted customers from around the world.
[3] Shimura relies on his experience cleaning everything from dress shirts to camping tents. It helps him wash and restore the delicate fabric of soft toys. “While handwashing, I carefully feel what kind of material it is and assess the condition of the material ... gently massaging it with my hands as I wash it,” he told Agence France-Presse.
[4] Shimura is among a dozen certified cleaning professionals at Yonmarusan. It is a regional chain in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo. The firm has been cleaning soft toys for decades. However, business has boomed in recent years thanks to viral social media posts. These posts reflect Gen Z’s adoration of plushies and Japan’s love of everything cute and cuddly.
[5] Today, the service cleans more than 10,000 soft toys every year, compared with roughly 1,200 annually a decade ago. Some people even “come to Japan specifically for the purpose of having their soft toys cleaned”, said Hisako Mori, the firm’s public relations manager. “While the cleaning is being done, they enjoy travelling around Japan. At the end of their trip, they pick up their stuffed animals before heading home.”
[6] Shimura said some clients wish to keep specific scratches or scribbles on their toys. “These items hold special memories. That’s true for clothing as well, but even more so for stuffed animals, which we recognise our customers see as members of the family,” he said. “It’s a process where we truly cannot let our guard down ... When our customers are happy with the results, that’s really the moment when we feel a strong sense of fulfilment.”
Source: Agence France-Presse, April 29
