Introduction

Belldandy from Ah! My GoddessWhen it comes to culture, for a long time after the end of WW II, the U.S. and Japan were like father and son. In the post WW II era Japanese culture was nurtured on a steady stream of American movies, animation, and comic books.

“All the American movies banned during wartime came back in a flood, both new ones and old ones. It would have been strange for me not to have overdosed on them. I must have been seeing something like 300 films a year.”*1

It was not uncommon for Japanese comic and animation creators to use Hollywood actors as characters in their creations or for them to translate stories from American science fiction magazines and sell them as original work. It was under this shadow of American culture that modern Japanese popular culture developed, and thanks to many creative pioneers Japanese animation has developed into an unique medium exported around the world.

“From pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and animation to cuisine, Japan looks more like a cultural superpower today than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic one.”*2


The Hello Kitty toaster.Being called a “cultural superpower” may sound like a downgrade from Japan’s once mighty status in the world market. In recent years it’s economic state has been in a nose dive. The yen is down, the gross domestic product is down, the Nikkei Index is at a 17-year low.

Japan faces record rates of unemployment, and a recent downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service rates Japan only slightly more credit worthy than Botswana. The International Monetary Fund may investigate its banking system, which is suspected to be in even worse shape than the finance ministry has admitted. But despite these disturbing trends Japan’s cultural exports are approaching an all time high.

Hello Kitty, Japan’s most recognizable pop icon, is a prime example of this phenomenon. The Hello Kitty’s the product line was created by the Japanese company Sanrio in 1974 is one of the most popular merchandising products in the world. The Hello Kitty line earns them approximately $400 billion worldwide a year, including wholesale and royalty-based sales . Hello Kitty’s fans seek out her merchandise and can pay as much as $800 for a rare item. But most of Sanrio’s wealth comes from selling in volume:

Caitlin Cannata can hardly contain her excitement when she’s asked about her favorite pastime, collecting Hello Kitty paraphernalia… The 10-year-old speaks at lightning speed as she points out the various Hello Kitty items sprinkled around her bedroom. She’s been seriously collecting for only a year and a half… The knobs on her dresser drawers are covered with enamel Hello Kitty faces. Miniature plastic Hello Kitty action figures are scattered around the room. She also has a Hello Kitty tissue box cover, CD/radio player, tape dispenser, diary, lunch box, lotion dispenser, alarm clock, bedsheets, throw pillows and, of course, clothing…

Caitlin’s $3 allowance isn’t going to be enough to get the toaster that burns an image of Hello Kitty’s face onto the bread, but she’s hoping to get it as a gift. Til then, she’s on a mission with the help of her mother to find Hello Kitty band-aids and posters… On the corner of Caitlin’s vanity is her Hello Kitty telephone, her most prized item that lights up in pink when it rings. When Hurricane Ivan threatened Southwest Florida last month, the phone was Caitlin’s choice to put into the family’s hurricane box for safekeeping.*3

Yuko Yamaguchi, the current
designer of popular feline
character Hello Kitty.Hello Kitty is on so many products that even the parent company isn’t sure how many there are, but they estimate that there are between 12,000 and 15,000 items that carry her likeness. Hard alcohol is the only thing that Sanrio refuses to allow Hello Kitty to appear on.

Like many Japanese pop products Hello Kitty’s popularity at home is because of her foreignness. Sanrio’s official biography of her says: “Hello Kitty was born in London, England, where she lives with her parents and her twin sister, Mimi. Both Hello Kitty and Mimi are in the third grade. . . . Her hobbies include music, reading, eating the cookies her sister bakes, and best of all, making new friends”*4 “When Kitty-chan was born, in those days it was very rare for Japanese people to go abroad,” said Yuko Yamaguchi, Hello Kitty’s designer. “So people yearned for products with English associations. There was an idea that if Kitty-chan spoke English, she would be very fashionable.”

The Japanese consumer loves the foreign born Hello Kitty, but when Sanrio first tried to expand their market overseas it was a total failure. The company redesigned Hello Kitty for the American market but the fans would not buy it. They wanted the Japanese Hello Kitty not the Americanized version. What made the icon popular to Americans was her Japanese-ness.

Footnotes:
1. Noboru Ishiguro. Director of Star Blazers (1979) and Robotech (1985)
2. Douglas Mcgray, “Japan’s Gross National Cool,” Foreign Policy May 2002, Questia, 15 Mar. 2005 .
3. “A PURR-FECT 30 YEARS; Cult Figure Hello Kitty Celebrates 3 Decades of Youth,” Sarasota Herald Tribune 12 Oct. 2004: E1, Questia, 15 Mar. 2005 .
4. Mark Schilling, The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture, 1st ed. (New York: Weatherhill, 1997) 222.