All eyes are on Japan this week, thanks to the much-delayed Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, happening July 23 to Aug 8.
The event has been a hot debate topic for months now, with some countries and governing bodies calling for its cancellation, or further delay, in light of Tokyo’s worrying Covid-19 situation.
But controversy and competition aside, the Tokyo Olympics does have something light-hearted for us to appreciate – its mascots, the robots Miraitowa and Someity.
The mascots were created by Japanese artist Ryo Taniguchi, whose designs won a competition held in late 2017. Miraitowa is blue and white and is the 2020 Summer Olympics mascot, whose name is a combination of the Japanese words for future and eternity.
Someity, meanwhile, is the pink mascot for the 2020 Summer Paralympics (scheduled to be held from Aug 24 to Sept 5) and is named after “someiyoshino”, a type of cherry blossom.
These mascots bring to mind Japan’s love – nay, passion – for all things kawaii (cute) and symbolic. Known as “yuru-chara”, sometimes written as “yuru-kyara”, mascots can be found anywhere and everywhere in Japan.
If you’ve ever visited the country, you may have even come across a mascot or two or 100, and not realise it. That’s mainly because mascots have become an iconic part of Japan’s unique pop culture. We’re not talking about Hello Kitty, Pikachu or Ultraman here, which are fictional characters created by companies.
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No, these mascots are mostly used as promotional figures or images for a place, company, an organisation or event. Sometimes, too, it’s for the most ridiculous thing ever.
For example, there’s a mascot called Scopy-kun the friendly endoscope, which was created to promote Olympus’ line of endoscopes.
There’s also Wassan, a “middle-aged dog with rosy cheeks”, the mascot of a company selling garden supplies, who delivers soil and vegetables around Japan.
He works hard for his money, that dog.
Most of these titbits of information are from a blog called Mondo Mascots – mondomascots.com or @mondomascots on Twitter and Instagram – which posts pictures and facts about all the interesting mascots that can be found in Japan.
(There’s also a Twitter page that “introduces a Japanese manhole every hour”. This page is a bot, or a Twitter account that is controlled by a bot software, and it does exactly what it says in its profile. There are 178 districts registered with this page, so there are a ton of pictures of unique manhole covers to check out. Yes, the manhole covers in Japan are different from what you and I are used to seeing here in Malaysia, or any other country for that matter. But that’s a story for another day.)
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It is said that Japan’s obsessionwith mascots started to get a little out of hand about five years ago, when so many new designs were introduced every other week all over the country, representing the most random of things.
But isn’t this just the kind of stuff that has always made the country that much more attractive to tourists and foreigners?
Still, things got so bad that at some point, the government even “killed off” a number of characters representing official agencies and products that were deemed “unworthy”. You see, it takes a lot of money to keep these mascots – costs include the making and maintaining of all costumes, as well as training and paying people to wear said costumes.
Mascots that did not bring in enough revenue for the public office they were representing were cut from the list, never to return.
Everyone wants one
Of course, mascots are mainly created for marketing and advertising purposes, used by businesses and organisations to lure customers to their shops, sample their products or use their services.
One can make a lot of money from them too, by selling souvenirs, toys, clothes and other merchandise featuring images of these mascots.
In a 2015 report by The Guardian, it said that merchandise featuring Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto prefecture in Kyushu, raked in ¥64.3bil (RM2.08bil today) in sales.
The prefectural government had approved a total of 19,000 merchandisers to use the image of Kumamon the brown bear. Today, Kumamon is still a much-loved character not just in Japan, but globally too.
But of course, it is not always just about the money.
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Essentially, the mascots are also meant to help promote regional tourism, as well as educate visitors about the local community and its culture. Kumamon is a very good example of this.
Another one is Kuidaore Taro, the popular clown found in Dotonbori, Osaka’s busiest tourist area. He’s a bespectacled, drum carrying puppet who wears a red-and-white striped clown costume, and a conical hat.
Kuidaore was originally the mascot of a restaurant called Cui-Daore, which opened in 1949. Restaurant owner Rokuro Yamada commissioned the mascot a year later, as a way to boost his business. His plan worked out very well as by 1970, Rokuro opened seven more restaurants; the original store even expanded into an eight-storey building!
Throughout all this, the mascot was never moved, happily playing his drum and welcoming people every day.
Unfortunately, in 2008, the restaurant business shut down and Kuidaore was placed under the custody of another company, which took him all around Japan for events.
A year later, Kuidaore was returned to Osaka, and placed at the lobby of the Nakaza Cuidaore Building, where you can still find him today. There’s a souvenir shop next to where he is that has some pictures and notes on his background.
Top mascots
For the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Miraitowa and Someity are not the only mascots that will make appearances throughout the games.
Look out for Funassyi the pear fairy, who is part of a team of mascots that have been tasked with making the global sporting event as merry as it possibly can. Funassyi is the unofficial mascot of the city of Funabashi in Chiba, near Tokyo.
Funabashi is known for its delicious fruits, most notably, its pear.
Funassyi made its first appearance in 2011. It has released numerous music albums, starred in its own TV shows (an anime series and a live-action special), and has even had a live concert. It is only right that Funassyi makes an appearance at the Olympics as it shares more or less the same high rank as Kumamon in Japan.
Oh yes, there is an annual ranking competition held for these mascots, although it was decided that last year’s would be the 10th and final one ever. Apparently, the competition had strayed too far from its original purpose – to promote and revitalise regions – and that it was now just all about winning.
Last year’s winner was Takata-no-Yumechan, the official mascot of a town called Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture. Yumechan is a fairy that has been around since 2012, delivering dreams and happiness from her little sling bag.
In second place was Izumisano the warrior dog of Osaka prefecture, and Saitama prefecture’s Tsurugon, the dragon hybrid of Tsurugashima, came in third.
Another top mascot to look out for when you do get to visit Japan is Ieyasu-kun of Hamamatsu, a city in Shizuoka prefecture. Ieyasu was created to commemorate the city’s 100th year, and was modelled after Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of Japan’s first Tokugawa shogunate.
He ruled Japan for 17 years, during which he stayed at the Hamamatsu Castle. Tokugawa was one of the three Great Unifiers of Japan, and therefore is a respected historical figure in the country.
Today, you can find many souvenirs and merchandise made in the likeness of Ieyasu-kun.
There are many other interesting yuru-charas, of course, though listing them all down here may not be such a good idea. But you can always delve into the world of yuru-charas virtually, as there are some informative websites dedicated to these these mascots.
A word of warning before you do this, though: You may get the urge to buy a ton of kawaii merchandise.
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