On March 22, 2025, the second Keyboard Market Tokyo 2025 (commonly known as “Key Ket”) was held.
This year’s event, the second of its kind, was expanded from the first by doubling the area of the event use floor and increasing the total number of tickets sold from 1,000 to 2,000.
The number of exhibitor booths, including those of sponsors, also increased by 22 organizations from 36 booths at the previous show to 58 booths, making the event “much more diverse” in terms of both capacity and exhibitors. (Some booths did not participate due to unavoidable circumstances.)
I participated again this year as a staff member covering the event for Greenkeys, a media outlet specializing in keyboards, and here is my report on the event.
Text: Ryosuke Kawamura (Representative of GreenEchoes Studio)
Representative of GreenEchoes Studio
He launched his own media as a site operator and web writer, and now plans and manages multiple corporate media. He often types heavily in his work, and in his search for greater efficiency, he became addicted to the keyboard swamp and established “GreenKeys”.
Tokyo is surprisingly close to Niigata
GreenEchoes Studio, which operates the media outlet Greenkeys, is located in Niigata, Japan.
Since most keyboard events are held in the Kanto region, travel is usually by bullet train.
The Niigata-Tokyo trip takes about 2 hours.
As the morning came early each time, I took a nap on the bullet train and headed for Asakusa, the venue of the event.
People queued up for the first entry to get the items they were looking for – long lines from the first entry.
The venue is the same as last year on the 4th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Taitokan.
The event was operated jointly by the “Keyboard Market Management Office” and Yusha Kobo, with people wearing “staff” armbands running the venue, and it was impressive that the event proceeded very smoothly even in the midst of a crowded crowd.
Two hundred advance tickets were available for admission starting at 10:00 a.m. when the doors opened, but they sold out in just three minutes.
KawamuraI watched it in real time too, but it was gone really quickly.
The number of tickets has been increased to 2,000 for this event, and “same-day tickets” will also be issued.
According to Biacco (@Biacco42), the representative of the Management Office, approximately 2,000 tickets are expected to be issued, including day-of-performance tickets, and we realized that the keyboard fan population is growing.
In addition to the official ” Web Catalog” (a.k.a. “OHASHIKI”) available from this year, pamphlets with information on each booth were also distributed to visitors, making it easier for them to purchase the products they were looking for.
The first booth to draw a long line was the “A-01 kumakey” booth near the entrance gate.
They had prepared enough stock, but “we sold out before noon,” said kumakey, the booth operator.
The board was very popular, in part because we have prepared a board that supports low-profile key switches from this time.
In addition, the “A-03 mass” booth was notable for its lineup.
The purpose of the visitors is omni CS.
The keyboard is a one-handed 6-row, 40% integrated column staggered layout keyboard with a circular touch display in the center of the keyboard, in addition to different sized trackballs on the left and right.
As for the central touch display, it appears that it can be controlled with the “Vial” keymap modification application, which also attracted the interest of many fans.
Many company booths exhibited
At Kequette 2025, 11 business organizations exhibited, and all booths were crowded with people.
Among the corporate booths, Sanyo Godo Kaisha, which operates the S-1 NuPhy Japan and S-4 Lofree Japan booths, caught our attention.
At the S-1 NuPhy Japan booth, consignment sales of the Gravity36 self-made keyboard kit and Jizai Style, which handles TRRS cables, were conducted.
The Lofree Japan booth also sold the Lofree x Kailh Hades / Specter, a low-profile key switch “Kailh choc v2” standard that has become very popular and is widely used in home-built keyboards in recent years. I got the impression that the company is trying to integrate with the home-built keyboard community.
Sanyo Godo Kaisha has changed its “NuPhy Japan” e-commerce site to “DIGIART,” and NuPhy is now positioned as “part of the brands handled by Sanyo Godo Kaisha as a distributor.
In addition to this, LeleLab products, which are still rarely available in Japan, will be sold on the same day, giving the impression that the company is promoting its own branding as a “select store” that handles multiple brands.
The trend in the homebrew keyboard community is the “fusion of tracking devices and keyboards.”
As we covered the booths, we noticed that tracking devices and keyboards are becoming increasingly integrated.
In particular, the fusion of keyboards and trackballs has become a kind of trend in the self-made keyboard area, and there were many booths that designed and sold keyboards with trackballs, a derivative of the thumb-operated trackballs that started with Keyball (White Silver Labs).
There are also many devices that integrate a trackpad or trackpoint with a keyboard, and this is exactly what seems to be the “latest trend”.
KawamuraI posted what I felt on social media and received various remarks.
The fact that these discussions are so active shows the high level of enthusiasm among people in the keyboarding community.
What I thought when I saw the works exhibited at Kiket.
– Ryosuke Kawamura (@Hottyhottea) March 23, 2025
If I think about the integration of keyboards and tracking devices from a general perspective, I think it would look something like this.
Trackpad >>> Trackball > Pointing Stick
But when I think about home position keeping, it looks like this. …
In addition, regarding the product lineup, we felt that the number of products in the form of “almost finished products” seemed to have increased compared to last year.
After all, “soldering” seems to be a hurdle in the “keyboard fan” bracket.
Products that require only the purchase of keyswitches and keycaps and “just assemble” are probably easy for “home-built keyboard beginners.
The diverse world of artisan keycaps
In addition, there were a great many booths at the exhibition that dealt with “artisan keycaps,” which are commonly used in the world of miniature art.
Artisan keycaps are art keycaps for decorative purposes.
Although not yet common in Japan, mechanical key switches and equivalent key switches are made according to the “Cherry MX standard” and can be replaced one by one.
The standard size of a single key is 19.05mm x 19.05mm (the so-called 1u size – its roots seem to be in the yard-pound system), and it is on this size that the Artisan keycap can create its “own world”.
KawamuraThe raison d’etre of the artisan keycap is “appreciation.
Some are not intended to be pressed and are often placed on function keys or ESC keys.
Keyboard Market Tokyo 2026 to be held
And we have already decided to host the next year’s Kequette 2026.
#Key Kettle #Key Kettle 2025
– Keyboard Market Management Office (@keyket_jp) March 22, 2025
Key Kettle 2025 has come to a successful conclusion!
We had a great turnout and were blessed with wonderful exhibitors.
We would like to thank all the people who helped make this event possible.
See you next at Kequette 2026 on March 28, 2026! pic.twitter.com/JZ9bNAh3Bo
The next meeting will be held on March 28, 2026, and the venue will be changed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho Pavilion.
An official page had already appeared, and the countdown was steadily progressing until that time.
summary
That is all I have to say about the Kequet 2025.
Keyboard Market Tokyo 2026 is already scheduled to be held next year.
Considering that the second event had nearly 2,000 visitors, double the number of last year’s event, one could sense that the keyboard fan population is steadily increasing.
Although some have not yet been announced, we expect more keyboard-related events this year than in previous years.
Will the next major event be the ” Tenkaichi Keyboard Waiwai Kai ” held every May?
I am looking forward to hearing about this one as well.
Keyboard Market Tokyo 2024 is here.
