Sanrio's first Western hemisphere store opened in San Jose's Eastridge Mall. Sanrio Inc., Sanrio's American subsidiary that produces most of the merchandise found in franchise boutiques, has its office in South San Francisco, California. Sanrio also hosts two Theme parks in Japan, Sanrio Puroland in Tama, Tokyo, and Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita, Kyūshū. The company has partnered with UNICEF since 1984. ![]() In late 2003, Sanrio won the "Top Brand with a Conscience" award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles. For a time, Osamu Tezuka's baby unicorn character Unico, who starred in two feature-length anime movies in the early 1980s, was also part of the Sanrio empire however, the rights to Unico shifted to Tezuka's own company after Tezuka's death in 1989. Some of Sanrio's newer characters are Charmmy Kitty (Hello Kitty's pet cat), Kuromi (My Melody's rival) and Chi Chai Monchan (a pink monkey who balances bananas on his head). Sanrio constantly adds new characters to its lineup (up to three a year), so some of the older characters go into retirement. Tsuji himself), My Melody, Keroppi, Tuxedosam, Badtz-Maru, Tenorikuma, U*SA*HA*NA, Pochacco, Chococat, and Cinnamoroll. Other notably popular characters through the years have been Little Twin Stars (created by Mr. The popular mouthless feline has had both peaks and drops in sales over the years, but always has been the highest contributor to Sanrio's sales. Hello Kitty was added to the early characters of Sanrio in 1974 and was released in 1975. In 2002, they began a joint business venture with the Walt Disney Company for their greeting cards. Sanrio is the largest greeting card manufacturer in Japan. ("Kokoro" being the Japanese word for "heart"), best known for the android, Actroid. ![]() ![]() Sanrio also has an Animatronics company branch called Kokoro Company, Ltd. They also own the rights to the Peanuts characters in Japan. They also participate in the fast food industry, running a franchise of KFC in Saitama. It wasn't until 1973 that the company was officially established under the name "Sanrio." The word Sanrio comes from the Spanish words " san" (a shortened form of " santo"-"saint", "saintly", "sacred"-used in giving saints' names) and " río"("river").īesides selling their famed character goods, Sanrio also takes part in movie production and publishing. The company produced a line of character merchandise around gift-giving occasions. Sanrio was started by Shintaro Tsuji as the Yamanashi Silk Company in 1960, using 1 million yen in capital.
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