I'm guessing we're all pretty familiar with mascots. Maybe not up close and personal, but at least the simple idea/concept of them. Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, the Michelin Man, even Singa, Singapore's own mascot to champion the National Courtesy Campaign. 

But Japan, ah, Japan. Japan takes mascots to a whole new level. 

Dubbed Yuru-chara, Japan appears obsessed with mascots. There are mascots for everything. Prefectures, museums, even the police. And, at least until 2020, there was an annual festival (Japan loves festivals, evidently) for these mascots - the Yuru-Chara Grand Prix - where mascots compete for the title of the nation's favourite mascot (presumably by out-weirding each other). 

And these mascots, well, they get weird. Like, really really weird. We typically think of mascots as being cheerful, warm, child-friendly creations. That's almost the point, right? Something huggable and lovable. Japan thinks otherwise. Even Japan's National Tourism Organisation website headlines an article about the yuru-chara as such: "The Adorable and Absurd Ambassadors of Japanese Regional Tourism"

Adorable? Probably. Absurd? Oh you have no idea...

Here are some oddly cute ones: 

Mori-ken, a dog dressed as a frog. Mascot of Moriya City. 

Jumball the Third, king of the watermelons. Mascot of Nyuzen Town. 

Kenichi, a fairy with a bush clover on his head. Mascot of Tohuku University. 

Ebizabeth, a walking castle with a fried shrimp and a golden killer whale on top. Mascot of Nagoya City. 

Gabuchiki, a mix of a chicken and a balding 41-year old businessman. Mascot for Gaburi Chicken, a Japanese fried chicken chain

Some of them are just outright bizarre: 

Madori-kun, a wrestler with a floorplan of an apartment for a face. Mascot fo Sanpuku Real Estate Agency. 

Tsukihashi Wataru, a ghostly figure with a 9th century bridge on his back. Mascot of Kyoto's Arashiyama district. 

Spac-kum, a giant eyeball glowing like the sun, with big lips. Mascot for Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre. 

And perhaps my favourite one of all, Chiitan - self-described as a "0-year-old fairy-baby otter", who wears a turtle as a hat. Its quite a controversial figure, too. Formerly an unofficial representative of Susaki city, Chiitan's antics has made the city disassociate with it since. Chiitan gained popularity for its chaotic social media antics, perhaps best described as unhinged. Strange, random, but also often with notable elements of violence or recklessness, Chiitan has garnered a huge social media following (its IG page has 2.3m followers). And, it has also gotten the obsessive attention of John Oliver: 

Avid mascot culture is perhaps not to surprising from the land that gave us Pokemon (1025 of them now, and counting). 

But in some ways, I find Chiitan the most endearing and revealing of them all. Chiitan is completely bizarre, unnecessary, outrageous, crazy, and utterly weird. And yet, oddly still quite endearing and charming. In some ways, the eccentricity of Japan in a nutshell. 

Stay weird, Japan. 

~ Desmond
Images from Mondo Mascots on X