San-X

About San-X San-X is one of the largest character oriented stationary and gift manufacturing companies in Japan. Since 1980, San-X has created more than 800 characters, with 2 to 3 new characters each month totaling to about 30 new characters per year. San-X aims to be a company that hopes to provide sparkle and meaningful messages to a wide variety of targets through its character business. Beyond Hello Kitty | PDF version "Beyond Hello Kitty: A Study of Merchandise Figures in Contemporary Japanese Society" is my senior thesis for my major in Japanese with Honors. I write about the three types of characters and define "merchandise characters" (キャラクターグッズ用キャラクター群). I corroborate that San-X characters are merchandise characters and that they are used for social communication, identity, and escape. ハローキティを越えて | PDF バージョン 「ハローキティを越えて：　近代の日本社会とキャラクターグッズの研究」は日本語の専攻のために論文です。キャラクターには三つのタイプがある。全く新しいタイプがグッズ用キャラクターになり、ハローキティはこのタイプに属している。いくつかの理由が考えられるが、なかでも社会的コミュニケーションの確立やアイデンティティーの創造、そして現実逃避が日本人の心理に深い影響を与えているのではないだろうか。(This is a summary of my thesis in Japanese.) San-X in the New York Times "Sanrio is also being usurped by smaller, nimbler rivals. The formerly little-known stationery maker San-X has scored two huge hits in Japan with its panda character, Tarepanda, and its bear, Rilakkuma — which has charged up the Character Databank charts, ranking fifth in the latest survey."