ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the corporate strategies behind Hello Kitty's worldwide success and takes her popularity as a starting point for explaining the larger social functions of kyarakuta in Japan and beyond. Sanrio trades in social communication through its various kyarakuta, among which Hello Kitty reigns supreme. Sanrio presents Hello Kitty as a middle-class British girl living the quintessential, comfortable life in a white family, coincidentally named White. The only elements that tie her to Japan are her blood type and an appreciation for certain things Japanese, such as wearing kimono. The resulting kyarakuta overload potentially turns the everyday world visually into an elaborate, excessive playground whose every detail is planned, executed, and coordinated around cartoon figures. Purchasing a cute Hello Kitty product as a gift for a friend becomes not only an individual act but addresses a national need to assert and sustain social and emotional ties between people.
