Topics on Japan: yuru-kyara

Saturday, June 22, 2013

What is "Sorajiro"?

"Sorajiro(そらジロー)" is a mascot of weather reports of NTV(日本テレビ). Some people regard him as a kind of "yuru-kyara(ゆるキャラ)".

"Sorajiro" is a combination of two words: "Sora" means sky in Japanese, and "jiro" is a common boy's name, which is given to a second son in Japan.

He appears on weather reports of NTV with a weather forecaster. For example, Sorajiro appears on the weather report of "news every.（ニュース・エブリィ）", a evening news program of NTV, with Minoru Kihara(木原実), a weather forecaster.

Here is a video of Sorajiro and Minoru Kihara delivering a weather forecast.

Here is a video of Sorajiro having an accident.

[Link]
Sorajiro's facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/sorajiro

Sorajiro on twitter
https://twitter.com/ntvsorajiro

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

What is "Yuru-kyara"?

"Yuru-kyara(ゆるキャラ)"(loose characters) are cute, friendly and a little bizarre mascots owned by national government organizations, local governments, companies, individuals for the purpose of public relations. In recent years in Japan, more and more local governments(prefectures and municipalities) compete to create their own yuru-kyara. It is commonly called "yuru-kyara boom."

One of the most popular yuru-kyara in Japan is "Kumamon(くまモン)", which is a mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture. "Kumamon" is a combination of two words: "Kuma" is short for Kumamoto and "Mon" represents the local dialect that uses that word for the standard Japanese word for "things," or "mono(物)."

Here are Kumamon's images.

Kumamon standing