In the wake of the second world war, Japan took the world by surprise, emerging from the ashes with rapid development, and rising to the world’s second-largest economy by the end of the 1960s. With strong growth continuing through the 70s and 80s, it seemed like the good times were going to last forever. However, as with any economic boom, there is always a bust and this one hit Japan hard. In 1990, the massive bubble economy that had been growing since the late 1980s finally burst, ushering in years of recession and economic stagnation. This period from 1991 – 2001 is commonly referred to as the ‘lost decade’ (or lost decades adding in the 2000s and even through today). You may be wondering, what does this little econ lesson have to do with the history of San-X?!? Well, surprisingly, this part of Japanese history had a huge impact on the evolution of kawaii!
Starting with Yumeji Takehisa in the 1920s and continuing through the late 1980s, the main market for kawaii or ‘fancy goods’ were school-age girls; with things like Pencil Club, Pinny Nu, or the fun Waku Waku collection discussed in the history of San-X Part 1. While there may have been some crossover into the teen market, it was relatively minimal. Trending with the growing economy, sales of kawaii goods also experienced large growth from the 1960s through the 1980s. However, as with most discretionary goods, development and sales of kawaii product plummeted in the early 90s, with even Sanrio taking a hit. This lull in production is quite noticeable when looking at the San-X character library, with just a smattering of characters with debut dates between 1990 and 1997. The only notable of the lot is Mixed Cats, which still decorates calendars and planners today.
However, in the latter half of the 1990s, a new wave of kawaii products and characters swept across the county, with a sizable shift of cute being targeted not just young girls but at teens, young working women (knows as OLs in Japan, short for “office lady”), and even men! It’s argued that this boom in kawaii character goods targeted teens and adults was a reaction to the many years of the economic and social hardship brought on by the recession and economic stagnation of the Lost Decade. Tired OLs, overworked salarymen, and stressed-out college students were seeking out cute products to help soothe and heal this ongoing suffering and instability.
The delightful droopy Tarepanda, launched by San-X in 1997, is actually a perfect example of this phenomenon. The creator of Tarepanda, Hikaru Suemasa, has said she came up with this floppy panda when she was particularly tired and doodled something to mimic this feeling (tare means “lazy” or “droopy” in Japanese). While first released as stickers in 1995, stationery products featuring Tarepanda weren’t released until 1998, just a few months after a terrible financial crisis in the fall of 1997. Tarepanda was an instant hit with sales reaching almost $300 million in just a few months following release, with adults, both men and women, driving up sales. San-X attributes Tarepanda’s success in part to having been released just after the financial crisis and people being particularly sympathetic to the worn-out panda. Kenji Sone at San-X stated that “Many office workers felt exhausted thinking about the dark cloud hanging over the economy, which had grown unhindered until that time, I guess they saw a little bit of themselves in the worn-out panda character, so they were sympathetic toward it.” After years of economic stagnation and facing another financial crisis, it’s no surprise these drained office workers turned to a non-threatening and vulnerable cute little panda as a source of peace and comfort.
The success of Tarepanda opened the door to a whole new market of adults who were stressed out, overworked, and seeking out the healing power of cute. And San-X stepped up to meet this growing demand, churning out an unprecedented number of adorable and quirky characters. By the late 90s, San-X was putting out up to 2-3 characters a month. There were still plenty of characters targeted at the standard kawaii market of school-age girls like Sea Paradise, Wan-Wan-Wanko, and Twin Angels.
However, more and more characters were clearly targeted at adults and specifically designed to provide a sense of calming and healing. With silly backstories and often a host of comical sidekicks, these characters provided a fun escape from the economic uncertainty and years of being overworked and underpaid. One of my favorite examples of this trend is Beer-Chan, a cute mug of beer, who loves beer (of course!), and is always chugging away (don’t worry, he is 20, so of legal drinking age!). A couple of other lesser-known similar characters from this period include Tissue-san (literally an anthropomorphic box of tissues, who apparently is quite busy since tissues are always being used) and Ginshari-san (‘ginshari means cooked white rice, and this little grain of rice is here to save Japan’s economy!).
Another more popular example of this trend in Kawaii would have to be Kogepan, making his character debut in 1999. Kogepan, literally meaning “burnt bread” in Japanese, was burned by a careless baker making him unable to fulfill his destiny as a sweet treat for some special customer. This experience left him miserable and depressed, and he now spends his days listlessly roaming the bakery getting drunk on milk. Despite his gloomy attitude, he often befriends other breads in the bakery and is especially close with Kuriimupan, another bun who has also suffered a similar fate. With the combination of his sad back story of losing his job and being ostracized by his community combined with cute and often lighthearted themes (like summer vacation or party time), it’s easy to see why stressed-out OLs and salarymen may have found a sense of healing and perhaps comradery with this little burnt bread. Kogepan has continued to be a quite popular character in the San-X catalogue, with books, an anime series and even his own video game!
Not all the most popular characters of this period were quite as pitiful as Tarepanda or Kogepan, and there are plenty of examples of cheery characters, that while not quite as dejected, were just as fun and quirky! Another major hit, and one of my favs, was Nyan Nyan Nyanko (aka Nyanko), an adorable white cat who debuted in 2000 and was quite popular throughout the decade. ‘Nya’ is the Japanese onomatopoeia for meow, and nyanko is a casual word for kitty. However, Nyanko is no ordinary cat. This little white feline is also a master of disguise (Macavity?). While her specialty is mimicking various food items, from ice cream parfaits, to dumplings, to burgers, she has also been known to mimic things like amusement parks rides and beach balls! Nyanko’s themes are all about fun and often celebrate aspects of Japanese culture like matsuri (Japanese festivals), onsen (Japanese hot spring), Shinto, and even a whole theme focusing on local specialties across Japan.
In looking back at the history of San-X, and kawaii culture in general, the late 90s through early 2000s was a major transitional period with the rise in kawaii characters and products targeted at adults and the proliferation of quirky characters with the purpose of providing comfort, healing, and escape. Sanrio met this newfound demand by creating products targeted at adults, however, their character design stayed on brand, with traditional cutesy animals and continuing to promote the sweet and saccharine image of kawaii. Without already being tied to a fixed brand image, San-X was able to take advantage of this market shift by developing characters aimed at adults with all sorts of influences. The culmination of this transitional period in San-X history would be the launch of Rilakkuma in 2003, which would go on to be the flagship character and serious rival to the domination of Hello Kitty, at least in the domestic market. Check out the final part of the series to learn about the rise of Rilakkuma.
