In Japan, pharmaceutical companies almost always have mascots, so this weekend I went to the Japan Drugstore Show, a giant pharmaceutical trade show in the cavernous convention centre Tokyo Big Sight, in the hope of catching sight of a few cuddly characters. I was not disappointed!
Kero-chan and Koro-chan, the frog mascots for Kowa Pharmaceuticals since 2008, were present. Statues of these amiable amphibians can be spotted in pharmacies around the country. Kowa have always had a frog mascot of some kind since one first appeared on boxes of their hives medication in 1949.
Kero-chan and Koro-chan
I also ran into a big white cat called NECO, the mascot for Hakugen Earth dehumidifiers.
NECO
Ohta Inyan, the blue-haired cat mascot for the gastrointestinal medicine Ohta Issan, was giving a presentation about the various ingredients of the famous antacid.
Sato-chan and Satoko-chan, the colourful elephant mascots of Sato Pharmaceuticals, were also at the Japan Drugstore Show.
Sato-chan and Satoko-chan
Sato-chan (the orange one) has been around since 1961. There’s even a mini museum inside a pharmacy in Ginza, Tokyo, dedicated to the pachyderm pair. It’s worth a visit, if you’re in the neighbourhood.
Sato-chan Museum
I had another encounter with pharmaceutical mascots last Autumn, at Kanda Myojin Shrine, where the mascots gather once a year to pray for people’s health.
Medicinal Mascots at Kanda Myojin Shrine
One popular mascot at the shrine was Bin-kun. Bin-kun is a bottle of Yomeishu, a medicinal tonic (14% proof) for physical fatigue. Bin-kun was wearing a facemask despite not having a nose or mouth.
Bin-kun
Kan-chan, a pink penguin girl who has the misfortune of being shaped like an enema, is the mascot for Ichijiku enemas. I was very pleased to snap a photo of a priest from the shrine posing with Kan-chan. A unique sight indeed!
Kan-chan poses with a priest at Kanda Shrine
I’m glad these mascots are out there rooting for everyone’s health, and I hope to meet them all again.
I usually spend much of my free time in Tokyo tracking down yuru-chara (Japanese mascots), catching their appearances at department stores, street festivals, and train stations. Such events have naturally been cancelled this year, due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19. This is just as well—it would be embarrassing for one’s death to be caused by an encounter with a six-foot tomato.
One of the last mascots I saw in February was Arukuma, the current champion of Japan’s “Yuruchara Grand Prix”, an annual poll to decide the nation’s favourite mascot. Arukuma, a rambling bear in an apple hat, was already wearing a mask.
Arukuma, with a mask
As the dreaded coronavirus began to dominate the news in the spring, Japan’s mayors and governors held press conferences to announce the measures that would be taken. Behind them, to soften the blow, illustrations of their various municipal mascots could be spotted.
My new hobby is identifying the mascots behind Japanese politicians at coronavirus press conferences. pic.twitter.com/fOmjyWd9v2
As time went on, the mascots in the pictures began to wear face masks.
Regional mascots have been utilised throughout the country to illustrate signs promoting social distancing and hand washing.
Kumamon, beloved mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture
Here are some flags I spotted near my home, featuring Gayan the ladybird (mascot of Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward) and Sanchawan, a dog with a tea bowl for a head (mascot of Sangenjaya, a district of Setagaya).
Gayan, the mascot of Setagaya
Sanchawan, mascot of Sangenjaya
Without events to attend, Japan’s mascots kept busy by taking to the internet and posting videos to entertain housebound children.
Even sports mascots have been active on social media. The Chiba Lotte Marines’ occasional mascot, Nazo No Sakana (the Mysterious Fish) has posted several videos of surreal “hand-washing dances”.
While Japanese mascots were quick to adopt mask-wearing, it was in Thailand that the first actual Coronavirus mascot appeared. Covid-kun, a giant red COVID-19 particle, appeared in March to help educate the public about the deadly virus.
Covid-kun
Although Japan has yet to create a fluffy COVID-19 particle character of its own, some existing virus-related mascots have risen in prominence this year. Quaran-kun, an airport quarantine mascot created in 2019, is a round yellow fairy with wings, a protective shield, and a Q on his forehead. He has had an unexpectedly busy year.
Quaran, a winged fairy with goggles and a Q on its head, is the quarantine mascot for airports in Japan. pic.twitter.com/vjhcBwBXTQ
Shinjuku Awawa, a soap bubble superhero who encourages residents of Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku district to wash their hands, has also been very active in 2020, extolling the virtues of hand-scrubbing every day.
Shinjuku Awawa
As the pandemic grew more desperate, Japan’s mascots even turned to traditional folklore for ideas. Amabie is an ancient yokai spirit who looks like a mermaid with long hair, three legs, and a beak. Legend has it, sharing images of her wards off disease, so numerous mascots have posted pictures of themselves wearing Amabie costumes.
Amabie is a mythical Japanese mermaid-like creature, with long hair, three legs, and a beak, who is said to cure people of viruses when they see pictures of her. So lots of mascots (like Kapal and Kumamon, below) have been dressing as Amabie. pic.twitter.com/evlcx6ewNE
In Kagoshima Prefecture, an Amabie mascot painted an enormous Amabie in a schoolyard. A drone took photographs of the giant portrait from above, and the pictures were put into pendants and given to the school’s students.
In Japan, images of the mermaid-like creature, Amabie, are said to ward off viruses. So at Nakagori Elementary School in Kagoshima, an Amabie mascot painted a giant Amabie in the schoolyard. pic.twitter.com/CRxoJfEDf3
While the presence of these illness-eradicating mythological monsters brings comfort, relying on them alone to end a pandemic is unrealistic, so modern medical precautions are still dutifully observed. My most recent yuruchara sightings, mascots for two different towers, have been exercising caution. The first was Noppon Ani, one of the pointy pink brothers in dungarees who act as the mascots for Tokyo Tower. Noppon Ani was sensibly wearing a plastic protective visor. The other character I spotted was Sorakara-chan, the star-headed mascot for Japan’s tallest tower, the Tokyo Sky Tree, and she was sporting a face mask.
Noppon AniSorakara-chan
Finally, a new character dedicated to stopping the coronavirus, a mask-wearing pink cat named Koronon, has been handing out masks around Tokyo in recent weeks.
I hope people continue to follow the example of these conscientious mascots until the virus goes away.
2018 has been another eventful year in the world of Japanese mascots, so here are some of the highlights.
Social Media Superstars
Chiitan in Shibuya Loft Department Store
The year’s fastest rising star was Chiitan, the disaster-prone otter/fairy baby. Chiitan only first appeared last December (initially as the mascot for an actual living otter, also called Chiitan), and in one short year has amassed a huge online fan base (more than a million followers on Twitter), thanks to the character’s endless stream of viral slapstick videos. Numerous lucrative merchandising and advertising deals inevitably came Chiitan’s way. I managed to catch a couple of Chiitan’s rare public appearances this year, and the otter was always surrounded by droves of adoring fans.
Chiitan is the first of a new wave of internet-savvy costumed characters with Youtube and Twitter accounts. The character’s success has inspired several imitators, such as Pasuke the panda and Poohtah-kun, both of whom post videos of their own comical pratfalls. An animated “virtual youtuber” ghost named Bakegoro, from Matsudo City, also appeared in costumed form for the first time in October, and was soon making headlines after being spotted cleaning up litter in Shibuya the morning after Halloween.
There was no shortage of new mascots this year. The most prominent debut was that of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic mascots, Miraitowa and Someity, whose designs were voted for by the nation’s schoolchildren. I was invited to their unveiling, a big event where they were introduced by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
The unveiling of Miraitowa and Someity
Another notable pair who made their debut were the 2019 Rugby World Cup mascots, Ren and G, who are “shishi”, sacred lion-like mythical creatures who ward off evil and bring happiness.
Meanwhile, both Nebaaru-kun (the natto fairy from Ibaraki) and Shinagawan (the cable TV mascot dog of Shinagawa, Tokyo) introduced mechanized metallic versions of themselves this year — Mecha-Nebaaru-kun and Mecha-Shinagawan.
Another memorable new character this year was Colon-chan, an intestine-haired lady who encourages colon cancer screenings in Japan’s Miyoko City. Apparently, Colon-chan has helped increase the number of early detections of the disease.
Colon-chan
My favourite new mascot was Namakoro, the pink sea cucumber mascot for Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force in the Sasebo Region. The sailor-suit-wearing pink creature was selected because sea cucumbers don’t run, they don’t hide, and they have a thick skin to protect themselves from enemies.
Namakoro the pink sea cucumber
Endangered Mascots
It was a turbulent year for Hemiemon, a new character from Yokosuka City, modeled on a pair of old naval guardhouses to celebrate their recent listing as historic buildings. Not long after the mascot made an enthusiastic debut, it was revealed that the two sentry posts were in fact built in the 1920s, far more recently than thought, rendering Hemiemon rather obsolete.
Meanwhile, the striking Tokitama (a hairy-legged egg who wears a fried egg as a hat), the popular mascot of Kagawa’s Tokiwa-Gai Shopping Street, faces an uncertain future and has not been seen in public since the company that manages him closed in the spring.
Another imperiled mascot is Ananmaru the bulldog, the public safety mascot of Komae, Tokyo. Ananmaru’s features and demeanor were modeled on the local mayor, and that mayor was forced to resign following sexual harassment allegations earlier this year, leaving the axe hanging over the head of his canine lookalike.
Ananmaru (left) and the mayor he’s modeled on (right)
In Memoriam
While new mascots arrived, we had to say goodbye to a couple of old friends.
In March, Kan-kun, a globe with plane wings, who had been the mascot of Kansai International Aiport since 1994, retired and left “to fly around the world on a new journey”.
Mochi Usagi, a pink bunny with a rice cake head, also retired as mascot of Yahiko Village in Niigata Prefecture in April because the license with the creator ran out.
Mochi Usagi
Memorable Events
Highlights of the year came courtesy of some familiar faces.
The Chiba Lotte Marines’ occasional mascot, the ever-evolving Nazo no Sakana (the Mysterious Fish) got himself a passport and went to Hawaii.
Kan-chan, the enema/fig/penguin mascot of Ichijiku Pharmaceuticals, released a suitably bonkers new theme song video.
And Hiyoko, the lovable chick mascot for Nissin Chicken Ramen became a devil worshipper in a very rock n’ roll commercial.
The Yuruchara Grand Prix
A big annual event in Japan is the Yuruchara Grand Prix, an online vote to establish the most popular mascot of the year. In 2018, the proceedings were beset with scandal, when several mascots (most notoriously, Konyudokun, the long-tongued boy from Yokkaichi City) were accused of rigging the election by buying thousands of votes. After suspicious votes were removed, the winner of the troubled election was announced as Kapal, a popular kappa mascot from Shiki City in Saitama. The eccentric, cucumber-wielding water imp has risen to prominence in recent years by playing bass in the mascot bands Charamel and GCB47. I was happy with this result and went to Kapal’s homecoming celebration the following month, where the beloved green monster was paraded through the streets of Shiki by cheering locals.
Kapal is given a special resident’s card by the Shiki Mayor.
All in all, 2018 has been very enjoyable, and a particularly well-deserved year of success for Chiitan and Kapal. These mascot shenanigans have led to an eventful year for me, too — I got interviewed or profiled by CNN, Vice, The Independent, The AV Club, and Syfy among others, and I wrote an article for Citilab — so I’m thankful to all my fuzzy mascot friends. I’m already excited to see what 2019 has in store.
This week, several mascots from Niigata were to be found in Ueno Station, Tokyo. They came to promote their home prefecture. I managed to see Black Bancho, a super-cool squid from Itoigawa City; Reruhi-San, the 270cm-tall skiing mascot based on Theodor Von-Lerch, an Austro-Hungarian major who brought the sport to Japan; Na-chan, a fireworks fairy from Nagaoka; and Burikatsu-kun, a half-man/half-fish from Sado Island.
