85-year-old Shintaro Tsuji is the founder of Sanrio - the firm that introduced "Hello Kitty" in 1974. Sanrio's shares have doubled this year making the founder a billionaire, amid the Abenomics levitation.
The success of the brand appears to be its ubiquity - as Bloomberg reports [4] "it must be way up there in terms of the most recognized franchises in the world", - adorning everything from wallets, bags, golf clubs, and iPhone cases.
But it's his latest venture - into "Hello Kitty" vibrator massager mastubrator - new from Japan" [5] that caught our eye.
As one shopper in a Times Square store noted, "it’s nice to have something a little girly and flashy and fun," and it doesn't show any sign of slowing with sales of around $900 million last year, "it’s very hard to see any diminution for the Japanese fondness for cuteness."
Sanrio Founder Shintaro Tsuji...
And the "kitty" friendly massager...
[5]
From Hello Kitty to Hello P....