Mascot fever in Japan

Mascots have been on the rise in Japan for many years. These cute characters, called gotochi chara, are created to promote a location, a region, a company, or an event, which makes Japanese people proud. They exist by thousands, are always colorful and display a wide range of shapes. One can also find contests crowning the best mascot of the year.

A gotochi chara mascot must follow three rules: it has to convey a message of love for the city, the region, or the brand it represents, its moves has to be original and clumsy, and it needs to be gentle, all of this while remaining mute most of the time.

Most of gotochi chara have their own goodies like key-chains, plushes or manga, and also have their own theme song. Some mascots even imitate J-pop idols by performing on stage with instruments and costumes.

These colorful characters have also conquered the gaming world, notably thanks to a game titled Gotochi Testsudo: Gotochi-chara to Nipponzenkoku no Tabi. This game, which was released in 2014, invites the players to meet famous Japanese mascots and learn more about local products and specialities.

Japan Expo was pleased to welcome some of the most popular gotochi chara on the Azuki and Sakura stages. The attendees were thus able to meet Asakura Yumemaru from Fukui, Denchû-kun, the kabuki actor from Ibara, Merugyuu & Merumomo, the couple from Oyabe, Mikke-chan, the dancing kitty from Osaka, Seto-kun & Koma-chan, the musicians from Seto, Tochisuke, the building-looking mascot from Tochigi, Yoichi-kun, the luckiest bowman from Otawara, Yuzugappa from the Tokushima prefecture, and Kumamon, the famous bear from Kumamoto.

Japan’s favorite river otter, Shinjo-kun, came from Susaki with her guitar to perform on stage but also as part of a big contest to find the perfect attendee who would become Susaki ambassador for 2018!

The mascots also went to the Kids area to meet the youngest attendees and share a day full of games, songs and souvenir photos with them. And with the Bal des mascottes documentary by Julien and Denis MENTZER, the audience could learn more about the gotochi chara.

You can take a look back at these cute meetings on JapanExpoTV, our Youtube channel!