If you are in Japan you can’t just ignore them, you can’t live one single day without bumping on them around the streets, signs, packagings or even at the public transport. The mascots “populate” Japan’s daily life in an unavoidable way. They are part of the culture, they are idols, government’s public figures and kids best friends.
Many of these characters became so famous that people don’t even know their story, but even though the presence they have in the society can be compared with ancient gods from japanese legends or shinto. And actually that’s one of the reasons why mascots are so popular and connected with the Japanese contemporary life. The idea about having many gods with personifications, or even the diverse variety of monsters (yokais), somehow inspired this culture.
Some of them became a hit, like the Domokun from NHK TV, that even outside Japan is famous, although people have no idea about its connection with the television channel, and barely know about what actually is NHK. Another super famous mascot is Kumamon, the black bear that represents the Kumamoto prefecture in Japan. Its brand value is insane, all coming from licensed products and merchandising appearance.
Kumamon is one of the 1168 mascots created by the Japanese government to foment cities and areas around the country, but the other mascots, who received less spotlights as the friendly bear, are not that famous or profitable. Because of that, recently the government started to struggle with the mascot’s budget, forcing many regions to “kill” some of the icons.
While many started to simply disappear, some cities raised money through crowdfunding in order to keep their mascots alive, like the city of Otsu. And unlike the others, Hokkaido area just used creativity, joining all the mascotes they had in a single one, creating a gundam-style robot, the Ororon.
But from the mascot economic crisis to the unique shining star, which is Kumamon, we also have another mascot surfing royalties money by being the number one profitable license holder mascot in the country — this is Funassyi. It is an unofficial mascot which represents the city of Funabashi, Chiba, created by a citizen who was frustrated about his city having no mascot at all. Being a result of this spontaneous act, Funassyi follow a peculiar attitude among its other mates.
Usually all them are called “Yuru-chara”, or “Gotouchi-chara”, being slow, friendly and not speaking at all, always needing a person to help them to walk around and to communicate. But Funassyi is a rebel and break all this mascot diplomacy. He is absolutely crazy, jumping around, dancing, headbanging and so on. Also he talks by itself, needing no human as an interpreter. And not being enough being the talkative one, it also can speak fluent Chinese and English.
But leaving the popstars mascots aside, we also have some not famous, and a bit doubtful characters as well. If you live in Tokyo you are aware that Kobam (police stations), are well secured by Pipo-kum, that flying alien (?).
And if you commit a very bad crime you might be send to Asahikawa Prison, and you will live with Katakkuri-chan, the mascot protecting this maximum security penitentiary.
We also have a few controversial mascots, like some with phallic shapes, some trying to convince people that nuclear power is cool and safe, like Pluto-Kun, or the new Israel’s embassy one, a friendly and cute bird which aims to represent the country in Japan. And don’t think you that all the controversy with these cute buddies are just in Asia. Recently the Japanese Mayonnaise Kewpie was launched in the USA, but for the surprise of many, the baby/angel mascot, a classic in Japan, had its body cropped, appearing in a way to look “less like a naked child”.
And for a bigger surprise, people just found out that Kewpie became a Japanese icon, but the angel is actually FROM USA. It was a character from a comic strip created by Rose O’Neil in 1915, which was later licensed by the brand. Now back to its home country the poor angel is suffering all this censorship. Mascot’s life can be tough.
The thing is – they are a fact and became part of the country’s culture, something attached with the nation history. Even being cute, stupid, creepy or whatever, mascots nowadays are inside the big and diverse universe of Japan. Probably in a future, existing or no, they will be heritage stamped in books, and even being displayed in the museums, sharing the same space as ancient creatures and legends. Or, they will just disappear leaving no traces, who knows?
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This article was written specially for BREW!