Tenkey Vol.7] Exhibiting companies increased significantly! Report on Japan’s Largest Keyboard Meetup Event (Company Booths)

On November 4, 2024, Japan’s largest keyboard meetup event “Tenkaichi Keyboard Waiwai Kai Vol. 7” was held.

The venue was the DMM.com Group Seminar Room in Roppongi, which is becoming a standard venue.

This article reports on the day’s events.

Exhibitors tripled in size! Tenkey Vol. 7 Report

At this year’s Tenkey, the number of exhibitors’ booths has tripled.

Fifteen companies are participating in this year’s event, including companies that are only offering prizes.

Here are a few excerpts from the booth.

Lofree (Sanyo Godo Kaisha)

At Lofree, the low-profile keyboard exhibit is a highlight.

Many people tried the Lofree Edge, which is ultra-thin and uses mechanical key switches, the Flow, which offers a superb key feel, and the Flow Lite, which offers excellent cost performance while inheriting the Flow’s key feel.

The sale of the latest key switches from “Hades” and “Specter,” which were brought in by hand-carry, was so popular that the contents of the case were quickly depleted.

The Foundation keyboard and numeric keypad on display at the left end of the booth was a product with an unprecedented taste, and many people seemed interested in it.

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NuPhy (Sanyo LLC)

In the NuPhy booth, nSA profile keycaps (WoB/Bow), which are now available at the online store from the same day, were piled up, and in front of them, Gem80JIS, which we have reviewed on this site, Gem80US, Field75HE, AIr75v2 Air60HE, etc. were lined up in a narrow space in front of the Gem80JIS, a JIS model reviewed on this site.

The brand is very active, with the recent introduction of the Halo65HE keyboard with 65% layout magnetic switches.

HHKB (PFU Corporation)

In addition to the newly released HHKB Studio snow model, the PFU booth also displayed the original HHKB, which uses the capacitance non-contact method.

The unmarked HHKB Hybrid Type-S test-tip corner was also popular, with many visitors enjoying touch typing.

Realforce (Topre Corporation)

Topre displayed its newly released 70% layout model, the RC1, in an all-out display.

According to Mr. Saito of the sales department, “By removing the steel plate that increases rigidity, we were able to reduce the weight compared to previous models,” and the weight is only about that of a plastic bottle.

A “new Realforce” form was proposed that was designed to be portable.

The model omits “one column on the right” from the 75% layout model, and the Z row is shifted 0.25u to the left “out of spite” (Saito said) due to this change.

Even so, I was able to type with little discomfort.

LEOPOLD (LEOPOLD Corporation)

LEOPOLD displayed a variety of newly released Japanese-language keyboards.

The “FC660MBT” with a 65% layout caught our attention in particular.

Mr. Kimura, the representative of the company, is confident that he was able to achieve the bottom line layout of “conversion and non-conversion keys next to the space bar, symmetrical at 1.25u, and the arrow key in an inverted T” as his particular concern.

Other attractive models included the FC980MBT, a full-size keyboard that was reduced to a tenkeyless size.

The profile was also impressive, with what Mr. Kimura called “Step Sculptured 2,” a slightly lower profile than the Cherry profile, making it very easy to type on.

Keychron (Kopec Japan Inc.)

Perhaps the largest number of exhibits among the corporate booths was Kopec Japan’s Keychron booth.

On display were the Keychron K2 HE, for which crowdfunding had just closed, the Q15, a commercial-type solenoid layout, and the B Series, which uses the ZMK firmware.

We were also provided with a sample of an “as yet unreleased” Gateron LP 2.0 standard silent linear switch.

Revell Touch (FCL Components, Inc.)

(Photo by Daihuku )

The company, which changed its name from “Fujitsu Component Limited” to “FCL Component Limited” on February 1, 2024, exhibited a sample product that is the successor to the famous “Libertouch,” which uses a membrane system.

We feel that the key feel is so good that it will overturn the concept of the common membrane keyboard, and will become a new breeze in the keyboard area.

summary

This was the corporate booth section of Tenkey Vol. 7.

With such an increase in exhibitors in just six months since the last exhibition, it seems that the keyboard boom is on the rise.

This time, Keyreative’s representative, Mr. Zhao, and Alex from zFrontier came from China to exhibit at the booth, showing the global expansion of the event.

The next event is still undecided, but the scale of the event seems to be getting a little too large to fit 300 people.

However, there is a concern that as the venue becomes larger and the number of people increases, the “lively” feel of the concept will fade away.

We can’t wait to see how this event will transform itself in the future.

The next event is the “Key Kettle” to be held on March 22, 2025.

This is not a social event, but an exhibition and sale, and is a larger scale event than Tenkey, with twice as much space for sales and an expected 2,000 visitors compared to the previous event.

Like Tenkey, Kequet will be a ticketed event, and tickets must be purchased in advance for admission.

If you are interested, why not visit?