Gunma-chan: the champion mascot

Gunma-chan is a cute little pony from Gunma prefecture. Created in 1983, he then was the mascot of the 38th Athletics National Festival taking place in Gunma. He got a little redesigned since then: from a horse walking on four legs, he became an adorable brown pony walking ion his hind legs and wearing a green hat. His name has changed too since he used to be called Yuuma. In 2008, he became Gunma to represent Gunma prefecture, which keeps him quite busy! Now, he’s got his own blog, facebook page, house (a store actually), choreography, and cookies. In Gunma, he’s a star. After being second for two years in a row, Gunma-chan won the contest at last and back home, he was rewarded with a gold medal. 

Gunma-chan got 1,002,505 votes (from people on the web and from the visitors at Yuru Kyara Grand Prix in Tokoname, Aichi prefecture), much more than the second mascot, Fukka from Fukaya city, Saitama prefecture, with 835 981 votes. And the third was Mikyan from Ehime prefecture.

Before Gunma-chan, Sanomaru-kun had won in 2013 – a samurai promoting his region’s food, baby chicken Bari-san in 2012, and the most popular bear, Kumamon, in 2011 (success followed the contest!). The contest is getting more and more popular, which shows how successful mascots are in Japan. In 2014, there were 1,700 entrants representing prefectures, cities, towns, institutions, that is many more than the year before. 

At Japan Expo, we love mascots too and we have hosted several of them, among which Kumamon or the most improbable Funassyi!

All the mascots taking part in the Yuru Kyara contest are on the official website (in Japanese) and we invite you to have a look at Gunma-chan’s official video!

Do you have a favorite mascot? Tell us which one with a comment (log in or sign up).