Expantion of pastel Globalization with “yuru-chara”

Do you know Hello Kitty? She is the most popular Japanese mascot character who is particularly loved by young girls in Japan, and there are many women and men who are fans of her in the world as well. In short she represents Japanese “kawaii” (it’s close to “cute” but has a different nuance from cute. People who create the “kawaii” feeling concept are young Japanese girls through some generations).

Meanwhile, Japanese people created “Yuru-Chara” mascots. They are a little bit similar to Kitty on the meaning of “kawaii” but they are a little bit different from her in meeting of soft. “Yuru” is the derivative word of “yurui”(it is close to a relaxed feeling but deferent from it), It is difficult to explain the Japanese “yurui” in English, but I think that “yurui” is an important word as well as “kawaii”. So I will introduce some representative local yuru-chara mascots.

There are a lot of local yuru-chara mascots at every turn in Japan. The first one which I will introduce is Hiko-nyan, who is the official mascot of Hikone city in Shiga prefecture between Kyoto and Nagoya. He is the great white cat with a red samurai battle helmet with horns. That helmet is the symbol of the samurai lord of Hikone Castle in the Edo period. Then Hiko-nyan is bound to be a strong samurai fighter, but everyone who looks at him never recognize it. He is absolutely soft and he is a kawaii cat who welcomes visitors.

The second is Funasshy, who is a private mascot in Funabashi city in Chiba prefecture nearby Tokyo Metropolis. Funassy is a sprite of a yellow pear which is the big agricultural product of Funabashi. He is vigorous and he often fires pear juice, but he has a round body far from the active man and his action is stiff. Gaps among activity, roundness and stiffness give a lax character with smiles to people who look at him.   

The third is Kuma-mon, who is the official character of Kumamoto prefecture in Kyushu. He is a black bear, but he is not relate to the culture nor products of Kumamoto. “Kuma” means a bear in Japanese so his character of a bear is a joke. A real bear is an animal to avoid but Kumamon with tender eyes and red cheeks is kawaii and naughty.

These yuru-chara mascots have some gaps which are different from their real elements, Hikonyan’s welcoming behavior against his braveness, Funashy’s roundness against his vigor and Kumamon’s naughtiness against his roughness. They live in a fuzzy field where there is no boundary line.

“Kawaii” is the significant key feeling for not only Hello Kitty but also a lot of local yuru-chara mascots. Kawaii feeling originated from Japan is spreading through the popularity of Hello Kitty. Christine R Yano, who is an anthropological professor of Hawaii University, wrote a book about the phenomenon that Hello Kitty has influenced people in the global society. The name of this book is “Pink Globalization”. She says in this book that the international popularity of Hello Kitty is one aspect of what she calls pink globalization—the spread of goods and images labeled cute (kawaii) from Japan to other parts of the industrial world. 

Now Hello Kitty is the symbol of kawaii in the world, but her history of popularity since her birth day is not on a linear line. Soon after birth she got great popularity among young girls, but after several years her popularity dwindled. Young girls lost interest in little moving Kitty. Sanrio which produced Kitty changed the promotional tactics that Sanrio distributed her kawaii attraction to young girls. Staffs of Sanrio went to many places in Japan and held many parties of Kitty, furthermore they communicated with young girls to hear many of their voices and opinions. As a result they reproduced the new more active and more diverse Kitty than the original one. Then the new Hello Kitty has gotten more great popularity and her activity and diversity helped her popularity in the world.

Now the number of local yuru-chara mascots is increasing. As Hello Kitty is pink, I think local yuru-chara mascots are pastel. The most important role of the local yuru-chara mascots is to welcome all visitors. In order to relax and to delight visitors local people create new yuru-chara mascots based on some characters that people hit upon kinds of imitating the thinking of their culture or products. 

Hyakuman-san who is the official mascot of Ishikawa prefecture is a little bit different from previous local yuru-chara mascots. He is gorgeous rather than “yurui” but he is “kawaii” as well.

By all means when you come to Japan I recommend that you should check some kawaii mascots or characters like Hello Kitty previously. Particularly if you have a daughter you should do it. Then you should meet local yuru-chara mascots at various local places in Japan. Please pay attention to local yuru-chara mascots who are in city place like a station or a park. If you touch them you will feel the welcoming world where there is no boundary line. Moreover you should embrace a local yuru-chara mascot with your arms. They will turn your holidays into lovely events. You will be able to make your feeling of “kawaii” and “yurui” inside your body. At that moment it shall transform you into a representative messenger of Pastel Globalization.