Article and Interview from the WSJ (but requires you to be a subscriber)

Path to Hello Kitty Began
In Tsuji’s Kindergarten;
Learning From Hallmark

By AYAI TOMISAWA
October 15, 2007

Before World War II, birthday-party gift giving among Japanese children wasn’t widespread. One exception was in kindergartens run by Christian organizations.

That’s where a very young Shintaro Tsuji, now 79 years old, says he got the idea that prompted him, decades later, to found the predecessor company to Sanrio Co., today one of the world’s largest purveyors of gift products. He remains president of Sanrio, which profits from a multitude of products, manufactured by itself or under license and imprinted with its cute cartoonish characters, now numbering about 450 and led by a round-faced white cat known as Hello Kitty.

Thousands of different products bearing the Sanrio characters appear around the world, especially in Japan and elsewhere in Asia and in the U.S. They range from clothing, bedding, jewelry and toys to digital cameras, robots, credit cards and stationery. The Hello Kitty characters also are featured at the Sanrio Puroland multistory indoor theme park in Tokyo.

Mr. Tsuji says he didn’t expect Hello Kitty to become such a runaway hit when she first appeared in 1974. Now he says that without her the company wouldn’t have survived. At Sanrio’s headquarters in Tokyo, Hello Kitty is everywhere — on a floor mat, a phone, a DVD player, and on the neckties of male employees. When Mr. Tsuji sat down for an interview with Ayai Tomisawa, he didn’t have on his usual Hello Kitty tie. But he did wear his Hello Kitty watch.

WSJ: What was your first job and how did you start your company?

Mr. Tsuji: I was a civil servant in the Yamanashi government [a prefecture west of Tokyo] for 11 years. I wound up in the commerce department, where I promoted local products. When I talked about launching my own business, my boss thought I was crazy, because civil-service jobs were well respected, with stable wages. But I was determined.

When I founded Sanrio’s predecessor, Yamanashi Silk Center Co., in 1960, the governor and vice governor of the prefecture and some of my friends invested in it. I was thrilled, but because they invested in me I realized I couldn’t mess up.

WSJ: How did you come up with a gift business?

Mr. Tsuji: When I was a child, giving and receiving gifts on birthdays and Christmas wasn’t common. But I attended a Christian kindergarten, where kids exchanged presents on their birthdays as kids do in Western countries. Also, on Sundays we helped bring things to needy people in the community. I learned that gifts bring smiles to people’s faces, and it made me happy.

Years later when I visited the kindergarten my son attended, the memory came back. I asked the kids if they had ever received a birthday present. Only a few had, from their parents. That’s when I knew a gift business could be successful.

Our first gift business was to paint strawberries onto sandals. Sales took off, and I realized that adding value brings in more bucks. So we asked designers to create characters that we reproduced on stationery items, cups and other products.

WSJ: What was the biggest obstacle?

Mr. Tsuji: The royalties we paid to the designers didn’t come cheap. And if we didn’t own the rights to their designs, competitors might emulate our business and mass produce products more cheaply. So we applied for copyrights, and hired our own designers. Sanrio now has 30, who continue to create characters.

WSJ: Who gave you the best business advice?

Mr. Tsuji: Joyce C. Hall, the founder of Hallmark Cards Inc. Back in the ’60s, the products of our two companies often were placed side by side in department stores in Japan. Exchanging gifts still wasn’t common in Japan, so Hallmark’s greeting-card business wasn’t successful. Mr. Hall invited me to his headquarters in Kansas City in 1969, and praised our gift-giving business. He said that attaching a card to a gift was a more polite thing to do, and asked me to be the distributor of Hallmark cards in Japan.

I was skeptical because a card is just a piece of paper. I doubted it would make a great business. But Mr. Hall convinced me, arguing that unlike gift products, 100 cards could fit in a small box and take up less inventory space. I took a chance, and we began packaging gift products together with cards.

The business wasn’t always profitable. But in the early ’80s, I interviewed elementary-school students again. I asked them if they had received gifts for their birthdays. This time, all of them had, from parents and friends. I realized that exchanging gifts on special occasions had finally taken root in Japanese culture. And I believe that the tie-up with Hallmark contributed to it.

WSJ: What is the toughest problem you face as a manager?

Mr. Tsuji: I have never cut jobs and I probably won’t. But this conviction would contradict the company’s commitment [to shareholders] as a listed company, especially when we are struggling. Our consultants have advised me to cut the payroll to raise operating profit. But a company also has a responsibility to provide a harmonious environment and security for its workers. I believe we can offset our losses by other means.

WSJ: Counterfeit Hello Kitty products from China and elsewhere must be costly to Sanrio. What is the company’s policy on copyright infringement?

Mr. Tsuji: We are taking appropriate measures against product piracy. But we want to do it in a harmonious way. China is still developing copyright legislation that, I believe, will eventually meet international standards.

WSJ: Hello Kitty debuted in 1974, and you can assume its fans are aging as well. Do you plan to target older generations?

Mr. Tsuji: We already have items lined up for older fans. For example, we have nursing-care items, canes, reusable shopping bags and so on. I am hoping that Hello Kitty will continue to appeal to people in all generations.

WSJ: What do you do in your free time?

Mr. Tsuji: I like to write books [16 so far, ranging from fairy tales to business]. I also like to go to our Puroland amusement park and interact with customers.

A good chronology can be found on CNN.

Abe, diagnosed with abdominal problems caused by stress and fatigue, will continue to hold the post until his successor is named. But his hospitalization — expected to last three or four days — deepened the sense of confusion that his departure has fomented.

"Some may perhaps call my decision irresponsible," Abe said in an e-mail posted after he was admitted to a Tokyo hospital. "However, I made up my mind that it would be in the very best interests of the nation, and of the people of Japan, for me to step down from my position."

This was a shock for everyone and he is not nearly as strong as Koizumi was but to depart so early and there were a lot of hopes on him as well as Japan’s youngest Prime Minister. What worries me most is that despite the local scandals, his regional position against China and Korea was more moderate than expected despite his initial conservative stance and that infact he contributed to regional stability, a more radical right-wing crazy may not do as well and the ultra-conservatives may have been the real reason he is no longer where he is today, in other words, secretary-general Taro Aso who were not as reform minded as Abe or Koizumi and may well reverse policies.

Japanese Press statements were as follows:

Even so, "the timing of Prime Minister Abe’s resignation announcement was very surprising. Literally, he threw away power. It was unprecedented", the Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial.

"He had just reshuffled the cabinet, made his policy speech and spoken to the people of his determination" to stay in the job, the liberal daily said. "As the leader of the nation, it was unthinkably irresponsible."

The Yomiuri Shimbun also said in an editorial: "The timing is so bad that it is difficult not to criticise the prime minister as irresponsible."

"This is dereliction of power. It can’t be helped but to say it’s a totally irresponsible attitude," the Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial.

"It is a shame that such a prime minister led the nation."

So we’ve seen many Hello Kitty vehicles, but this Bus is the best I thought because it wasn’t a small bus like the one below, it’s a complete Double Decker fully decked in Kitty Style! I love it! The Bus below is really cute too, but it’s not as grand as the Double Decker! If the world was all pink and cute it would be a lot friendlier don’t you think?

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any Racier, Hello Kitty goes race girl! She’s cute but the racing girls are beautiful too, and unlike other outfits, this one isn’t too daring as far as racing girls go but I wonder about the family friendly image, leather jacket anyone?

Is this supposed to make Kitty popular with the boys or the girls? hmmmmm anyway it’s something different. Zent is a Super GT motorsports Company in Japan and normally Super GT isn’t the domain of women or girls, so I wonder what the strategy here was?

What do you all think of this, male testosterone aside? They are the Zent 2007 Sweeties and I’m not sure if this is not going to be another Hello Kitty massage toy episode?

I’ve posted previously about Anime fan service bedsheets, but given that we’re here with Hello Kitty, I give to you the Hello Kitty Fan bedsheets! It’s a whole lot more wholesome and family friendly! Kawaiiiii!

THE JR Company in Japan responsible for underground trains and bullet trains have launched a new kind of train, the Neko Mimi! I wonder if those ears are aerodynamic or flop back when the train moves?

The New York Times reports on an earthquake in Japan.

TOKYO, July 16 — A pair of powerful earthquakes shook Japan’s northwestern coast about 14 hours apart, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 800.

Hundreds of buildings were flattened or damaged to some degree, including the world’s largest nuclear power plant, which suffered a minor equipment fire and a leak of a small amount of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan. The utility that owns the plant said the leaked water posed no environmental threat.

Thousands of people were left homeless by the damage done by the first earthquake, which struck at 10:13 a.m. on a national holiday in Japan. The quake, its strength estimated at 6.8 on the Richter scale, was centered off the cost of Niigata, a prefecture that was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2004. Skyscrapers in Tokyo, about 130 miles southeast of Niigata, swayed for almost a minute from the tremor.

Japan has always had a lot of earthquake problems, I wish for a speedy recovery to all affected!

Btw, how can radioactive leakage not pose an environmental threat?

I got this image from Hello Kitty Hotzone, where I got the other Hello Kitty Art picture. It’s a pretty neat depiction of Hello Kitty Baby Grand, but it’s actually not human sized, but cute design anyway.

I got this image from blog.hellokitty.com/hotzone the photo is not particularly good quality, but I thought the creativity was very interesting, it’s Hello Kitty with My Melody, Twin Stars, Tabo, Kuririn and a slew of other characters, not surprisingly, Badtz Maru provider the dark outline, I wish I could have seen this picture in real life. Really Cool Image I got to say.

Japan’s cutest cat will be cushioning one lucky dog when the canine’s owner buys a 3.9 million yen (US$31,660; €23,210) doghouse set to go on sale later this month.

The one-of-a-kind fancy residence, large enough for a lapdog like a chihuahua or terrier, features a pillow adorned with 7,600 crystal beads in the shape of Hello Kitty’s face, Sanrio Co., the company behind the feline character, said in a statement Friday.

The luxury product was created especially for a sales event at a Tokyo department store and designed in collaboration with a maker of high-end pet goods, it said.

“There’s been a boom in luxury couches for larger dogs, so we thought there might be room for something new,” said Sanrio spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu.

Products created in previous years for the weeklong sales event aimed at adult Kitty fans include a Kitty-themed “i” minicar from Mitsubishi Motors Co. and a Hello Kitty Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, which sold last year for 2.52 million yen (US$20,460; €15,000), he said.

Lots will be drawn in the event that more than one person offers to buy the doghouse, according to the company’s statement.

Hello Kitty has been popular for years with children and young women, but the cat has begun to appear on electronic gadgets, guitars and expensive jewelry.

Tohmatsu declined to speculate on whether the doghouse might help ease often fractious relations between cats and dogs.

“It’s not something we really had in mind,” he laughed.