Hello Kitty is now 50: How did the Japanese cat become a global icon?

Hello Kitty doesn’t look her age. And despite recently  turning 50, she is showing no signs of slowing down.

In 2025, the Japanese character – worth around US$4 billion (£3.1 billion) a year to the company that owns her – is due to star in a live-action movie. A new amusement park and resort are also planned.

Her 50th year has been celebrated at events in Japan, Singapore, the US and the UK, where she received a birthday message from King Charles at a state banquet in Buckingham Palace.

Quite the party then, for a character with two black-dotted eyes, no mouth and a yellow button nose.

Designed in 1974 by Yuko Shimizu (who is not believed to have made much money from her creation), Hello Kitty first appeared on a clear, vinyl coin purse – and has since grown into a merchandise empire consisting of over 50,000 different items sold across 130 countries.

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Hello Kitty’s longevity is partly down to her inherent simplicity. In terms of design, she is composed of a few basic shapes, six short marks for whiskers, and a red bow. She is easy to recognise and cheap to reproduce.

The character also epitomises “Kawaii”, the Japanese term for cute. According to Professor Joshua Dale, a pioneer in the field of “cuteness studies”, perceiving objects as cute triggers psychological instincts for care and protection.

With Hello Kitty, children relate to the small, rounded character as being safe. Like others (see Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and many, many more), she provides a sense of innocence and comfort, which attracts fans from an early age – and continue into adulthood among those longing for nostalgia.

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Part of this comes down to people’s abiding enthusiasm for anthropomorphism – the notion of endowing animals and other non-humans with human-like characteristics. Some would argue that this is also a key element of the infantilisation of society more generally.

Hello Kitty also has an easily relatable storyline that resonates with consumers. According to her biography, Hello Kitty – full name Kitty White – is a cheerful little girl (so officially not actually a cat) who lives in the suburbs of London with her family. She is described as being “five apples tall” and “three apples” in weight. She apparently loves to bake cookies, and her other hobbies include travelling, listening to music and making new friends.

How Hello Kitty became a brand

But away from the baking and friend-making, Hello Kitty has a very serious business side to her character. Sanrio, the Japanese firm that owns her, has employed some astute strategies to build and sustain such a successful brand.

Collaborating with other firms has been a big part of this. In 1996, Sanrio launched began its first collaboration with an electronics retail chain in Hong Kong. But things really developed three years later when the company joined up with McDonald’s to offer a Hello Kitty meal deal.

In your Happy Meal today.
Probably on eBay for $500 in a week.
The limited edition collab "Yu-Gi-Oh! x Hello Kitty & Friends" is finally here. pic.twitter.com/l1gdsHOphk

— Guillaume Huin (@HuinGuillaume) August 20, 2024

The promotion started a craze in Hong Kong with similar success in Taiwan, Japan and Singapore – where the launch in 2000 led to massive queues and even fights. Customers reportedly threw away the hamburgers as they were only interested in the special edition wedding design toy set featuring Hello Kitty and her boyfriend Dear Daniel.

This year, a 50th anniversary collection of McDonald’s toys in Singapore quickly sold out and were soon being resold online.

Elsewhere, the commercial success of Hello Kitty has been linked to licensed collaborations with big brands including Nike, Adidas, Crocs and the Italian fashion label Blumarine.

Hello Kitty products have progressed from stationery and stickers to microwave ovens, toasters and vacuum cleaners. She has appeared on Fender Stratocaster electric guitars and Swarovski jewellery.

There are also two officially licensed theme parks in Japan, Sanrio Puroland (in Tokyo) and Harmonyland (in Ōita), with another due to open on China’s Hainan island in 2025.

And to add to the animated series and films, comics, books and video games, next year Hello Kitty will follow in Barbie’s footsteps and appear in a (partly) live-action movie produced by Warner Bros. The co-director of the film, Jennifer Coyle, says the release will “spread the message of love, friendship and inclusivity that Hello Kitty stands for”.

Yet despite all of these projects, Sanrio is diversifying away from the character. Hello Kitty now accounts for 60 per cent of the company’s business in North America (it was 99 per cent in 2013) and just 30 per cent worldwide. Other characters are moving on to Kitty’s patch.

According to the Sanrio 2024 character popularity ranking, Hello Kitty occupies fifth place, with Cinnamoroll (a dog with pink cheeks) sitting at the top.

Other younger creations such as Gudetama (an apathetic egg yolk) and Aggretsuko (an angry red panda) mark a notable shift from Sanrio’s emphasis on cute characters towards ones which reflect social concerns. Aggretsuko, for example, faces gender discrimination, social anxiety and a poor work-life balance. Gudetama reflects the struggles and aspirations of young people in Japan.

But as new characters come and go, Hello Kitty’s familiar expression will no doubt remain unchanged, as it has for 50 years. An inscrutable gaze looking back on five decades of incredible commercial success.

Sameer Hosany, Professor of Marketing, Royal Holloway University of London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.