As well as being suitably silly for your Sunday entertainment, this recent survey from goo Ranking into Japan’s cutest corporate mascot is also an excuse to introduce a new blog, Japanese mascots, which does just what it says on the tin.
Demographics
Over the 21st and 22nd of March 2008 1,036 people from the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% were male, 7.0% in their teens, 14.7% in their twenties, 30.1% in their thirties, 27.0% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 10.2% aged sixty or over. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.
My favourite character is Liyon-chan, but he doesn’t make the list as he’s a Kansai-only character, I think, or perhaps he was wrongly-counted as the Lion Lion-chan? From the list, it would have to be Pinky then Koala no March kun.
Note that characters from companies like Sanrio, Disney, and San-X who are sold as characters in their own right were excluded from this survey.
Oh, and click the character photos to see a video of the animal in action.
Research results
Q: Who do you think is the cutest corporate mascot animal? (Sample size=1,036)
11 Comments
jiititititititiitititit · January 9, 2009 at 18:17
HIKONYAN IS THE BEST!
Ole Casthoej · April 21, 2009 at 09:55
I have with great interest studied these products and I have been inspired by the design and the basic ideas behind it. No wonder that you apparantly are doing well. Anyhow I wish you good luck
kiomkiom · May 12, 2009 at 21:35
Where’s Pikachu! Or Kirby!
This list doesnt suit my kind of cute but… i still like it!
Simone · March 20, 2011 at 00:37
These are corporate MASCOTS, where pikachu and kirby more qualifies as gaming characters xD Good picks though, just not for this list C;
Ken Y-N · May 12, 2009 at 22:25
kiomkiom, the list is only for corporate mascots, not stand-alone characters, so Pokemon and game characters don’t make it. Glad you liked it regardless!
Japanese Words · August 2, 2009 at 09:18
Something seems wrong when an insurance company comes in at #9. I’m surprised the Softbank dog didn’t rank.
Shichiro · July 11, 2012 at 05:21
Namacha Panda!!! <3
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