It’s pretty well known that Japanese people love cute things. So it makes sense that Japanese cities and businesses have figured out a way to represent themselves cutely. Have you ever seen an American baseball game where the team has some weird goofy mascot that usually manages to trip over themselves? Yeah that’s the approach Japanese cities chose to represent them. And it’s turned int a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR industry. So that’s definitely on my career options list now.

These mascot characters are called “yuru kyara,” which is short for “yurui masukotta kyarakuta.” Yurui means loose or laid back. So they’re laid-back mascot characters.

Famous Characters

The yuru-kyara boom really started with a little guy named Hikonyan, who was created to represent Hikone Castle in 2007. He’s a cat dude wearing an old samurai style helmet. After he was made, Hikone Castle made some $$BIG MONEY$$. There was a huge boost…