r/JapaneseMascots

149 archived posts · Sep 2017 – Sep 2026

Mascots of Japan

r/JapaneseMascots

Mascot characters from Japan - yuru-chara, gotōchi chara, corporate mascots, sports mascots, and anything else! (マスコットキャラクター・ゆるキャラ・ご当地キャラ)

Created Sep 20, 2017

407Members (last snapshot)

149Archived posts

Basic glossary

Yuru-chara or (ゆるキャラ yuru-kyara): "Loose" characters (unsophisticated or laid-back), representing a place or business - more info here. There are probably somewhere around 1500-2000 active yuru-chara in Japan.
Gotōchi chara (ご当地キャラ gotouchi kyara): "Local characters" - a subset of yuru-chara but specifically those who represent a place, be it anything from a neighbourhood to a whole prefecture. Sometimes officially referred to as an "image character" (イメージキャラクター)
Mascot character (マスコットキャラクター): Basically anything including the above, but also anything else e.g. sports mascots.
Characters like those from Sanrio or San-X (Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, etc.) are not strictly "mascots" as they don't represent something, and are just a "character" (キャラクター)

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