When’s the last time you checked your car’s tire pressure? The Japanese division of Dunlop Tires has come out with an infectious video guaranteed to make it so that you’ll never forget to check the pressure of your car’s tires again. Released late last month (Mar. 25), the video below, titled Teketeke Tenken is intended to remind people that they …

Japan just can’t get enough Snoopy. The Hokkaido city of Otaru will soon be home to the latest location of Snoopy Chaya (Snoopy 茶屋,  Snoopy Tea House), a popular chain of Japanese style cafes featuring food and decor based on Charles M. Schulz’s beloved comic strip: Peanuts. When the Otaru Snoopy Chaya opens its doors on April 19, it will …

Those suits may not be aerodynamic but at least they keep you warm… Japanese mascot characters are pretty amazing. Despite their strangely proportioned and cumbersome bodies, they seem to be capable of pretty much anything (except passing through doors). Just on Japankyo alone we’ve seen mascots that can score goals on entire soccer teams, play the drums like nobody’s business, …

If you’re afraid of giant origami cranes, this article is not for you. Much like in other countries, sports teams in Japan have mascots. Although most of these mascots tend to be cute characters based on animals, sometimes, such as in the case of a Japanese baseball team mascot named Mr. Black Eagle, they can be the opposite of cute, …

Sexy legs and big boobs, she is the embodiment of every guy’s fantasy, right? From middle-aged eagle men to giant pink dog poops, Japankyo has covered a number of bizarre Japanese mascots in the past but the one we’ll be looking at today may just take the cake. Who is Paiko-chan?   The name of this bizarre mascot is Paiko …

These bento are just too cute to eat. Kyaraben is the Japanese word used to refer to those incredibly cute and very impressive bento (boxed lunches) based on popular anime, cartoon and mascot characters (the word kyara is derived from the English word “character”). Pictures of these eye-catching food-art masterpieces can be found all over the internet, and odds are you’ve …

NHK fee collectors may soon be replaced by armies of robot Domo-kuns. Domo, or as he is typically called in Japan, Domo-kun (どーも くん Dōmo-kun) is that chocolate bar with a face-looking character that is the mascot of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). He was created in 1998 in order to commemorate the 10th anniversary of NHK-BS, which …

Life isn’t easy when your head is 3 feet wide. Last week a mascot character in Japan had a very embarrassing little accident when it was unable to pass through a doorway due to its head being too large. The embarrassing incident occurred on August 10 at the Ogimi Village administrative office in Okinawa Prefecture during a press conference, which …

A fun place to check out, unless you’re feeling lazy… For the uninitiated, Gudetama (ぐでたま) is an egg-based Sanrio character that made its (his? her?) debut in 2013 and is known for having a totally pessimistic outlook on life and an extremely unmotivated, low-energy disposition. Gudetama’s name perfectly encapsulates all these character traits due to it being derived from a …

Nothing to see here, just a giant dog poop walking a dog. You’re almost certainly familiar with the famous story of the Akita dog named Hachiko, who was so loyal to his master that he continued going to Shibuya Station to wait for him to return from work for almost 10 years after the master’s sudden death while at work. …

With the massive amount of mascot characters that exist in Japan, artists are often forced to make bold design choices in order to make their characters stand out and attain some degree of success. While this occasionally results in very interesting and successful characters, such as the lazy but cute egg themed Sanrio character Gudetama, other times it results in …

One hardCORE drummer. Nyango Star (にゃんごすたー), an unofficial apple themed mascot character (yurukyara) for the city of Kuroishi in Aomori Prefecture, has been getting a lot of attention lately for possessing some truly impressive drumming skills. Heavy metal apple Most recently, the hard rocking apple got people talking after he appeared in a music video for a new song by …