Word: doraemon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...many Japanese-language students had their druthers, they'd probably want a pair of cool cats to helm their classes. In May, Japan designated Hello Kitty as a tourism ambassador, two months after Doraemon, the aqua-hued robot feline, was named the nation's first cartoon envoy. The designation of these two cat representatives symbolizes just how much Japan's overseas reputation is tied to pop culture. That's a connection that surely pleases Japan's new Prime Minister Taro Aso. The 68-year-old premier, who is a self-confessed manga addict, has called for Japan to pursue what...
...many Japanese designers, collaboration also allows them to piggyback on the success of already established street brands. Japanese are even more attuned than Americans to the iconography of consumerism. This is, after all, an animation-crazed culture in which characters like Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Pikachu adorn everything from refrigerators to boxes of seaweed sprinkles. Consumers, especially the key youth segment, prefer splashing out on recognizable icons?an almost Pavlovian response to a society awash in symbolism. No surprise then, that one of the details that Takizawa is most proud of in his collaboration with Champion...