Popular Sanrio Characters
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Sanrio Company, Ltd. is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and manufactures products focusing on the kawaii ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories, which are sold worldwide, including at specialty brand retail stores in Japan. Sanrio's best-known character is Hello Kitty, a cartoon cat and one of the most successful marketing brands in the world. Besides selling character goods, Sanrio takes part in film production and publishing. They own the rights to the Mr. Men characters and Japanese licensing rights to the Peanuts characters. Their animatronics branch, Kokoro Company, Ltd. (kokoro being Japanese for "heart"), is best known for the Actroid android. The company also runs several KFC franchises across Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture.
Shintaro Tsuji founded Sanrio on August 10, 1960, then known as the Yamanashi Silk Company using ¥1 million in capital. In 1962, Tsuji expanded his enterprise from silk to rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. Tsuji noticed his success gained by merely adding a cute design to the sandals. He began using existing cartoon characters for his merchandise. In the late 1960s, the company began producing goods featuring Charles M. Schultz's beagle character Snoopy, from the comic strip Peanuts, after acquiring the Japanese licensing rights. In 1973, the company was officially established under the name Sanrio. In the book Kore ga Sanrio no Himitsu Desu or These are Sanrio's Secrets Tsuji, Sanrio's founder, said that Yamanashi, part of the company's former name, has an alternative on'yomi reading of Sanri. The remaining o was added from the ou sound people make when they are excited. The company's European website gives another origin of the name, saying the name comes from the Spanish words san ('holy') and río ('river').
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