ABSTRACT
Contemporary Japan is famous for using mascot characters to represent brands, organizations, government agencies, and localities. This chapter discusses how Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture in western Kyushu, has become a national favorite. Mascot characters compete with an astounding variety of mass-marketed fanshii guzzu depicting licensed characters produced by such corporations as Sanrio and San-X and those that appear in manga and anime. A 2013 mook titled Chi'iki burando no tsukurikata: How to Make a Local Brand, tells Kumamon's origin story. As of July 2015, the Japanese National Tourism Organization website on yuru kyara labels Kumamon a bear, as do The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and other news agencies. The comic depicted a boy whose spirit was displaced into his toy bear after a car accident. The "toy" grew up to resemble a human wearing an undersized bear suit.
