How Pokemon Stole Christmas

Like just about every other 10-year-old in Japan, Yasuyo Nakatani's son is addicted to Pikachu.

For an hour or two each day, the Pokemon character has him under its spell. She fears it will hurt his eyes or stunt his education. But what is a mother at the epicenter of the Pokemon empire to do?

That's easy: stock up before Christmas.

"If he plays too much, his eyes hurt and he doesn't study," Nakatani said, her arms loaded with a bag full of presents from Tokyo's Pokemon Center. "But if he leaves home without his Pokemon Game Boy, he gets bored."

Since its debut in 1996 as a software game by Nintendo Co., the Pokemon phenomenon has swollen into a $7 billion multimedia juggernaut that spans everything from television shows to trading cards, and is spreading across the globe.

In Japan, it is already defining the end of the millennium for millions of kids. And, for adults, Pokemon's success has become something of a matter of national pride.

"Pokemon is the place to be," said Lisa Spicer, an analyst at West LB Securities Pacific, Ltd. "It's definitely the dominant force in the toy industry."

Nowhere is that more obvious than at the Pokemon Center, which though tucked away on a back street behind Tokyo Station is easily identifiable by the lines outside, stretching 400 people or so deep on weekends.

Along with the standard software, trading cards and action figures, the store carries Pokemon mouse pads, Pokemon cookies, Pokemon spatulas, Pokemon chopsticks.

There are 151 Pokemon characters, ranging from Diglett, a tiny mole-like character, to Onix, with a face that looks like a rock.

Each monster -- a misnomer actually, since most of the characters are deliberately cute -- has its own powers, which can be enhanced or changed to battle its opponents.

That means kids have to strategize. And therein lies a large part of the game's appeal: It makes kids think.

And they seem to like it, even trading cards to get different monsters so they can try out new combat techniques.

There were concerns that the game wouldn't do as well in the United States as in Japan because it requires so much concentration, Gail Tilden, vice president of Nintendo America, said at a recent news conference in Tokyo.

So much for that fear.

Pokemon is expected to account for 20 percent of all Christmas toy sales in the United States this year. Its star, the cuddly but deadly Pikachu, has graced the covers of both Time and the New Yorker.

Sales of Pokemon stuff in Japan alone added up to $5.85 billion last year. And the expansion of the Pokemon menagerie to foreign markets -- it already has a billion-dollar niche in the United States -- has been closely watched, and loudly cheered, by many Japanese.

But the true significance of Pokemon may transcend mere sales figures.

Just now getting out from under its worst slowdowsince World War II, Japan's economy, and fabled corporate competitiveness, has lost the shine it once had.

So Pokemon's invasion of America is seen by many as evidence that Japan may be down, but certainly isn't out.

And more is in store.

Pokemon fans in Japan started reserving copies of the latest Pokemon game, Kingin, two months before its Nov. 21 debut, grabbing all 1.8 million copies at $37 a piece.

The company is now rushing out more copies to meet the Christmas crush. Nintendo spokesmen say the game will hit shelves in the United States just in time for next year's holiday season.

This summer, Warner Brothers will release a new Pokemon movie in the United States. The third movie, Pichu and Pikachu, will be launched in Japan at the same time and probably make its way to the United States in 2001.

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