A worn-out Pikachu plushie, tired teddy bear or stained stuffed animal can all get a new lease on life at a Japanese laundry service making beloved toys squeaky clean again.
Masakazu Shimura, a cleaning professional with three decades of experience, gave one stuffed Pokemon already in good condition a steam shower, carefully brushing it after a gentle bubble scrub, almost as if caring for a newborn baby.
Videos of the meticulous care the cuddly toys receive at his workplace, Cleaning Yonmarusan, have mesmerised plushy fans on social media, awarding the high-end fabric care viral fame and attracting customers from around the world.
Relying on his expertise and experience cleaning everything from dress shirts to camping tents, Shimura washes and restores the delicate fabric of soft toys.
"While hand-washing, I carefully feel what kind of material it is and assess the condition of the material and so on, gently massaging it with my hands as I wash it," he told AFP.
Shimura is among a dozen certified cleaning professionals at Yonmarusan, a regional chain in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo.
While the firm has been cleaning soft toys for decades, business has boomed thanks to viral social media posts in recent years on the back of a Gen Z adoration for plushies and Japan's love for everything cute and cuddly.
Today, the service cleans more than 10,000 soft toys every year, compared to roughly 1,200 annually a decade ago.
And 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."
Shimura said some clients wish to keep specific scratches or scribbles on their toys, as those marks sometimes carry precious memories.
"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." – AFP
