San-X

San-X (サンエックス, San Ekkusu) is a Japanese company known for creating and marketing kawaii (cute) characters like Rilakkuma. Their closest competitor is the larger Sanrio company, which created Hello Kitty. San-X characters are usually anthropomorphic representations of animals or inanimate objects. They are typically laid-back or lazy, often a bit mysterious or have insecurities. Since 1979 San-X have produced over 1000 different characters. In the 1980s, in their early days of character creation, San-X produced only stationery, and created several new characters every month. In 1998 Tarepanda was created by Hikaru Suemasa (末政ひかる) and by 1999 sales had reached 30 billion yen. It was such a success that it changed San-X from a stationery company to a full-time character development and licensing company. They shifted to increasingly producing toys and merchandise, as well as media like books, video games and anime. The blank expression and unobtrusive presence of Tarepanda was also the start of the character style that would become typical of San-X.

In 2003, Aki Kondo created Rilakkuma, San-X's most successful character to date, which by the end of 2016 had earned more than 250 billion yen. In 2019 the series Rilakkuma and Kaoru began streaming on Netflix. In 2012, Sumikko Gurashi was created by Yuri Yokomizo, growing to be worth about 20 billion yen a year as of 2019, with animated theatrical feature films being released. As of 2020, 60–70% of San-X sales were stuffed toys and household goods, with about half the products being licensed. San-X have gradually changed to investing more deeply in individual characters, and as of the 2020s they were aiming to release one or two new characters per year. They were also increasingly creating characters in collaboration with others, and for use in media products, like the characters in the Chickip Dancers anime from 2021.