Japan’s Unique Mascots

Posted August 5th, 2009 in Japan, Ume's Interests 6 Comments »

Besides those famous mascots such as Hello Kitty, Doraemon and Pokemon etc, there are hundreds of others in Japan!  It seems that many companies in Japan tend to create their own mascots/characters for marketing purposes as lots of Japanese people (especially kids and women) like cute characters …
Here is few of the popular characters from some Japanese companies…

<Kewpie (QP)>

QP mayonnaise is the biggest mayonnaise brand in Japan, and its brand image character “QP-chan” has been a popular mascot in Japan for years now.  There are many different QP-chan figures in Japan… in different costumes such as student, baby, doctor, Japanese kimono dress etc, and also in famous cartoon/character costumes such as Doragon Balls, Mickey Mouse etc.

 

<Mister Donut>

As I wrote in my previous post, I love Pon De Lion !!  So cute…  You can collect Pon De Lion’s plates, mugs, aprons, bath towels etc by buying donuts and gaining points at Mister Donut.

 

<Soft Bank>

So cute doggie!!  This white dog “Otosan” (means “dad” in Japanese) is the mascot of Soft Bank mobile JP, and he is so popular among people in Japan since they started using this dog as their image mascot!  There’re figures, biography and photograph books of him out there and they are selling like pancakes.  He looks like Shiba, but actually Hokkaido-ken (Hokkaido dog). Lovely ~

<Morinaga Choco Ball>

This is one of the long-selller chocolate snack in Japan (I remember eating it a lot since I was a kid) from Morinaga Co.  The reason of being one of the popular snack in Japan is not only its cute character “Kyoro-chan”, but also their long-time promotion; if you find gold or silver angel mark on the beak of the box, you can get a tresure box!  You need to collect either one gold angel or 5 silver angels to get this tresure box, and it is very rare to see the angel mark on the box.  In fact I’ve never got gold angel in my life!  Just one silver… so never seen what’s inside of the tresure box.  I can’t believe Morinaga is still doing this promotion.  It’s been going on at least for 20 years.  

 

<Kansai TV>

This is very local, but I love the character of Kansai TV, “Kantere”.  You can buy its collectible figures in Kansai TV studio, Kansai airport (KIX) and some shops in Kansai area.  I just love its face…  I used to use Kantere’s pen in high school :p  And, I got Kantere’s cup when I went back to Japan last time.  (can u find the blue plastic mug?) 🙂

 

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6 Comments on “Japan’s Unique Mascots”

  1. 1 angie said at 10:46 pm on August 5th, 2009:

    ASTRO BOY!! 😀

  2. 2 umepontarou said at 10:55 am on August 6th, 2009:

    Angie

    Oh yeah! Astro Boy is also famous in other countries, isn’t it. The cartoon was on when my parents were kids, so I’ve never watched Astro Boy on tv, but I love the character too 🙂

  3. 3 Bishonencam said at 11:32 am on August 6th, 2009:

    Those QP-chan characters are so cool!

    I love the Gegege no Kitaro, Lum and Asuka Langley Soryu ones! ^_^

    That Kyoro Chan scares me >_<

    Kantere looks like a Tamagotchi 😀

  4. 4 umepontarou said at 1:25 pm on August 6th, 2009:

    Bishonencam
    Gegege no Kitaro! Mee too (>v<) I used to play Kitaro game on super famicon when I was a kid, but I got scared with those characters... I don't know why now, all the characters are not scary at all :p I don;t know about Lum and Asuka Langley Soryu... is that new?? I think Kantere character is known in only Kansai area :p Looks like tamagochi, true 🙂

  5. 5 Bishonencam said at 9:48 pm on August 6th, 2009:

    I saw Kitaro anime when I first went to Japan and thought it was really cool. And I was going to buy a singing Kitaro clock as my final purchase but I bought a singing Doraemon one instead ^_^
    Those characters from Gegege no Kitaro would be kinda scary for kids. But you’re right, compared to some of today’s anime, they’re not scary at all.
    The top row of QP goes: Astro Boy , Kitaro, Lum, Ken the Eagle and Asuka Langley Soryu.
    Lum is from Rumiko Takahashi’s (who also did Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yahsa) Urusei Yatsura. Ken the Eagle is from Science Ninja Team Gatchman and Asuka is from Neon Genesis Evangelion. They are all very popular anime. Gatchman is from the 1970’s, Lum from the 80’s and Asuka from the 90’s so they’re not new at all. But if you’re not otaku (or like me “closet otaku” 😎 ) then you may not know them… Which is probably is a good thing because it means you have a life 😛

  6. 6 umepontarou said at 11:20 am on August 7th, 2009:

    Bishonencam

    Ah, I see. Lum=『Urusei☆Yatsura』in Japanese. English name and Japanese name are different, that’s why I didn’t understand :p

    Gatchaman is a famous one but I’ve never watched the cartoon. It was for my parents childhood anime.

    I don’t know if I’m Otaku (:p), but I love cartoon still now and I think Japanese characters are really cute and cool
    These days characters are getting little erotic though … :p

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