I want are also something other people want . So we wanted to make goods which people want to send to somebody else as a gift . The idea is that goods are for social communication purposes and that has been accepted worldwide . In addition , to give Hello Kitty goods as a present is very thoughtful . Our three concepts of friendship , cuteness and thoughtfulness have been reaching out to people . It conveys the importance of being friendly . Such gestures are necessary for the Japanese nation . You care about other people by sending some gifts . Those concepts have been accepted worldwide . Stevens : My first question to you is Sanrio has developed something like 450 characters . Why it is Hello Kitty has stood out so much more than the others ? What is the secret of its success ? Tsuji : At first we were using characters which were created by outsiders , such as cartoonists or artists , but in this case we had to pay the royalty . So we decided to create our own characters . We hired many artists and asked them to create various characters .
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- From a country which brought the world brands like Sony and Toyota , there 's another name that 's crept quietly to global prominence . Hello Kitty , the moon-faced cat with a bow in her hair and no mouth . Shintaro Tsuji , CEO of Sanrio , famous for its Hello Kitty brand , speaks in The Boardroom . She 's one of 450 characters developed by Japan 's Sanrio Group , but she 's by far most popular -- the embodiment of what 's known in Japan as Kawaii , or the culture of cute . Her image adorns some 50,000 objects , from cute , of course , to downright crazy . But there 's nothing cute about the numbers . Hello Kitty is responsible for more than half of Sanrio 's billion dollar annual turnover . Her creator and founder of Sanrio is the effervescent 79-year-old Shintaro Tsuji . He told The Boardroom 's Andrew Stevens what he thinks is the marketing secret behind a cultural icon . Tsuji : Selling something which people want to buy is one of the ways of doing business . But I thought , goods that