Visual Culture 2017: May 2017

Yuru-kyara (ゆるキャラ), or “mascots”, are a popular staple in the visual culture of Japan. Yuru-kyara is the contracted form of yurui mascot character (ゆるいマスコットキャラクター), which signifies the generally unsophisticated and laid back nature of these creations. There are a wide variety of these creations, most of which are referred to as gotōchi-kyara, or local mascots. These characters exist specifically to advertise and promote a region or small area, which I will elaborate on later. The most popular yuru-kyara are the ones who appear in mascot suits, also known as kigurumi, but many other exist solely as 2-dimensional advertisements. Many of these characters are either considered cute or fall into a category known as gurokawaii (creepy-cute.)

The cuteness factor is what tends to promote these characters to celebrity status and help them commercially. These characters have assisted much of the Japanese economy and revenue system over the years, and in 2012 a reported $16 billion was attributed to yuru-kyara driven sales (merchandise.) Because they have become so marketable, many corporations have taken to using them in order to help build clientele and establish popularity.

There is a noticeable difference between yuru-kyara and corporate mascots. To be considered a yuru-kyara, a character must fit these three criteria, decided by mangaka Miura Jun:

It must convey a strong message of love for one's hometown or local region
The character's movements or behaviour should be unique and unstable or awkward
The character should be unsophisticated or laid-back (yurui) and lovable

The second rule implies that yuru-kyara should exist in kigurumi, however there are agreed upon yuru-kyara that only exist 2-dimensionally. The most important aspect of yuru-kyara and gotochi-kyara are that they are designed by amateur artists, sometimes even young children, which is where the “unsophisticated” name comes from. This is what separates them from corporate mascots, mascots for sports teams (especially baseball), and characters who are a part of Sanrio such as Hello Kitty. Another noted difference between yuru-kyara and commercial characters is how the character originates. With businesses like Sanrio, the merchandise is released first, and then once a character attains a certain amount of popularity, they are given television shows and book series. Yuru-kyara and gotochi-kyara are generally revealed before merchandise is created to gain a fan base. This may have something to do with how yuru-kyara are generally considered crude and sometimes ugly to people because of their pro-bono origin, but commercial mascots have more money poured into design and professional artists to create a character that will immediately sell.

These characters can exist in the seemingly mundane areas of life in Japan. Many corporations have hopped onto the yuru-kyara trend after noticing the success other characters and companies have had with the fad. Airports, trains, and even prisons have adopted these characters into their aesthetic. The three aforementioned locations can be a source of high anxiety for visitors, so the yuru-kyara exist as a buffer between something that may frighten or set someone on edge. In the specific context of Asahikawa Prison, Katakkura-chan exists to soften the prison’s hard exterior, and help lessen the stigma of people who reenter society after leaving the prison.

One of the main reasons I have seen for why yuru-kyara are so popular is that they inherently lessen stigma and soften taboos in Japanese society which usually remain under wraps.

The popularity of these characters is most often attributed to the creation of Hikonyan, the yuru-kyara of Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture.

Hikonyan was created to celebrate the 400^th anniversary of the castle’s creation in 2007. Hikonyan increased tourism to the castle by about 200,000 visitors annually. His design is based off of a white cat, who is said to have saved li Naotaka, the Daimyo, from a lightning strike during a storm. He also is wearing a replica of a helmet which belonged to the li family is contained in the castle’s museum. Merchandising sales for Hikonyan as of 2008 (during its first year in existence) was recorded at $21 million.

This popularity and increase in tourism is what ultimately lead to the yuru-kyara boom Japan has seen in recent years. Prior to 2007, there were still many yuru-kyara, but Hikonyan ultimately paved the way for gotochi-kyara to take over much of Japan. We can thank Hikonyan for some of the more popular gotochi-kyara, like Kumamon and Funassyi. Kumanon was created in 2010 to popularize the Kumamoto Prefecture after the completion of the Kyushu Shinkansen.

After his creation, he only earned the entire Prefecture around $26 million, which compared to the sales Hikonyan brought in to a small area was a disappointment. Following Kumamon’s win of the 2011 Grand Prix, which I will go into detail about later, his sales skyrocketed to a whopping $120 million within the first half of 2012. In total, as of 2014, he has earned the area an additional $1 billion in revenue. Use of Kumamon for products also carries no licensing fee, which sometimes bolsters the amount of revenue a character brings in. Due to his popularity and ability to sell product, Kumamon was drafted to assist with relief in the earthquakes that hit the Kyushu area in April 2016. He alleviated much of the tension and sadness of the area by making appearances, and businesses were able to produce products using his image without needing to obtain permission first (previously, Kumamon was free to use with the signing of a document.) The disaster relief Kumamon brought into the area was nothing short of impressive, and has opened people eyes to the good that yuru-kyara can bring. Of course, there is always some people who only see the bad in these cheerful creations.

The free-for-all that is Kumamon’s licensing led to an oversaturation of products plastered with his image. While many people attributed this to his high rate of image recognition (87.4% of Japanese people,) many find that opening a product with his face on the outside, but nothing denoting Kumamon on the actual product can be annoying. It is also much easier for people to create fake/bootleg Kumamon. A game show in China came under fire for their character Lucky Bear, who arguably is a direct knock off of Kumamon.

Since the earthquake, it is much easier for people to obtain permission (or even create sans-permission) for Kumamon products, which in turn makes it easier for people to copy designs without consequence. Problems with yuru-kyara are unfortunately more in number than those as well. Many taxpayers are upset with their money going into the care of these kigurumi, especially since that care can cost up to $8,400. For bigger characters like Kumamon this is not such a big deal, since he attends almost 2,000 matsuri and other events a year. For smaller, more local characters however, they are only brought out a handful of times a year. On top of that, many towns and cities want their own yuru-kyara to promote their small area. The Rumoi Subprefecture, for example, is a small area with a population of around 53,000 people. This subprefecture had one gotochi-kyara per every 6,500 people. To combat this issue, the government devised a way to keep all 8 gotochi-kyara, but still downsize the cost. Ororon Robo Mebius was born, and contains aspects of each of the gotochi-kyara.

There are also just some gotochi-kyara that have nothing to do with the area they are “promoting.” The oversaturation of these characters ended up creating a culture of these being a necessity, so lesser areas with really no big export/trade/local attractions create “meaningless” characters, which people argue detract from the bigger characters that have meaning.

Because of the large number of yuru-kyara, there is a contest held each year to determine the most popular. This contest, known as the Yuru-Kyara Grand Prix, was established in 2010 and continues to this day.

This contest is a great way to track how the number of yuru-kyara grows over the years. In 2015 alone there were 1,727 entries into the contest, and of that number 1,092 entries were of gotochi-kyara. This is just under a 1,000 entry increase over 2012’s 865 entry total. The Grand Prix can also help assist in bringing awareness to an area when the yuru-kyara alone cannot. Barii-san, the yuru-kyara of Imabari, won the event in 2012. Prior to the Grand Prix, Imabari was one of the least visited islands in Japan, despite having an important export (textiles.) Barii-san was created as a large baby chicken, wrapped in a towel with a ship tucked into his wrap as a nod to the Island maritime nature.

Barii-san is now considered one of the most popular yuru-kyara and his island has seen an increase in tourism and revenue since the Grand Prix results.

One of the most interesting genre of yuru-kyara to me are the food related yuru-kyara. As stated earlier most gotochi-kyara exist to advertise a certain export in an area, most of which is food. These characters are designed to incorporate some aspect of that export into their design, which demonstrates the skill, despite how amateur, these younger kids have. There are also mascots designed for food chains, which leads more into corporate mascots than yuru-kyara, but these are still worth looking into. Of course, there are also food mascots that have no connection to the region they are promoting, which I’ll discuss a little later. The mascots of local crops are particularly great for assisting the economy of a certain area. They help both advertise the crop for sale, and their popularity helps sell any merchandise created in their likeness. An excellent example of a gotochi-kyara assisting with an area in Fukka-chan.

This gotochi-kyara carries the likeness of a deer, but with leeks instead of antlers. He also is seen wearing tulips on his overalls, which are green. Tulips are the symbol of Fukaya city in Saitama Prefecture, where Fukka-chan was created. Leeks are also the city’s main export. Fukka-chan received third place in the 2015 yuru-kyara Grand Prix, but is still one of the more recognizable yuru-kyara on the market today.

It is also possible to use yuru-kyara to advertise a certain food for a region, not just exports and crops. The Wanko Kyodai, a set of five bowls, are each filled with a different food which is popular in Iwate. They’re names are, as follows, Sobachi, Tofuchi, Unichi, Omochi, and Kokuchi.

The bowls themselves are made to look like the lacquerware which is produced mainly in Iwate. Some of these characters are interesting simply because of how weird they can be. I doubt many people would ever consider lacquerware bowls cute, much less capable of being sold as keychains and posters. However, the Wanko Kyodai, like many other yuru-kyara, are popular in their area and make a lot of money for those involved. There can also be something morbid about some of these yuru-kyara, as evidenced by Torimo-chan.

Torimo-chan is a large chicken who advertises the marinated chicken skewers which are popular in his area. Comparing this to the chick-fil-a cow, who attempts to get restaurant patrons to “eat mor chikin.”

American advertisement seems to avoid using the animal in question to advertise the food made out of that animal, while it does not seem wrong at all to do the opposite in Japanese advertisement.

It’s also interesting to compare American mascots to Japanese mascots. There is a lack of “cute” mascots in American food, even in children’s and baby food. Most of the characters lean more towards funny, while maintaining a level of adulthood. This difference is probably best summed up with how Americans react towards things they consider “childish.” Americans view adulthood as an entirely separate occurrence from childhood, like less of an aging gradient and more of a contrasting jump. Because of this, I think they feel the need to strip themselves of all things they found important and comforting in their childhood, like cute things. It’s so bad that people would not eat a certain food based on the packaging, despite if they enjoyed the food inside. They also seem to like their mascots to demonstrate more adult humor, even if not outright. Characters going to jobs, wearing adult clothing, and getting into ~adult~ situations seem more interesting to Americans than an anthropomorphic pear doing a dance on stage

(Sorry, Funassyi.)

The reason why Japanese culture seems much more open to cute mascots is probably because they do not see being child-like as a bad thing. Childhood exists as the period of time that you slowly become an adult, and not the period of time when you’re a child and then POOF, you’re an adult. It’s interesting because Americans, especially men, can be so averse to something as small as a cute keychain, but in some places in Japan it’s a sign of town pride to carry your gotochi-kyara on you.

References

•http://www.fluentu.com/japanese/blog/japanese-culture-mascots/

•http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/18/national/embassies-using-mascots-as-ambassadors/#.WQFshmnyvIU

•https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japan-is-so-crazy-about-mascots-that-fluffy-toilet-character-is-a-real-job/2016/09/04/d735906e-6e11-11e6-993f-73c693a89820_story.html?utm_term=.12017bb75869

•http://www.businessinsider.com/kfc-japan-vs-america-2014-9

•http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/06/19/osaka-airports-new-mascot-is-adorable-laid-back-possibly-drunk/

•http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/11/notorious-japanese-prison-unveils-cuddly-new-mascot-to-boost-image-3958678/

•http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2015/04/07-1/too-many-mascots-article-profiles-the-plight-of-yuru-kyara

•https://www.yahoo.com/news/japan-mascots-face-cull-combination-184138134.html

•https://www.tofugu.com/japan/kimokawaii/

•http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pagantama/2017/03/14/gods-mascots/

•https://nippaku.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/antropomorphism-in-japanese-culture/