In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji, founder of Sanrio Company, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. He noted the profits gained by adding a cute design to the sandals and hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise. The company produced a line of character merchandise around gift-giving occasions. Hello Kitty, designed by Yuko Shimizu, was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974, and had her first appearance on a vinyl coin purse. Since then, she has become a global phenomenon. 

One part of Hello Kitty’s design has sparked some controversy surrounding it. That is, she is not given a mouth. A spokesperson for Sanrio says that Hello Kitty is not normally given a mouth because “without the mouth, it is easier for the person looking at Hello Kitty to project their feelings onto the character” and that “the person can be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty.” Some people were particularly concerned about this. They felt that this showed Hello Kitty as being meek and unspeaking. They thought young girls could be made to feel as if they had no voice. Other people, however, believe that leaving a blank facial expression stimulates imagination in young girls. They believe that leaving the mouth off will allow young girls to imagine what the kitty is going through and imagine that she understands what the girls are telling her. 

In May 2008, Japan named Hello Kitty the ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong, which are two places where the character is exceptionally popular among children and young women. This marked the first time Japan’s tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role.