Japanese Mascots

Sento-kun

Posted in Events, Mascots in the News, Visitor Attractions by Japanese Mascots on April 20th, 2008

Sento-kun is the mascot of the 1,300th Anniversary of the Heijo-kyo capital in what is now the city of Nara, which will take place in 2010. His name was chosen from more than 14,000 suggestions, although the design has been controversial: it combines the Buddhist monks and the deer for which the area is famous, but many people have commented that the resulting character is not cute. Sento-kun’s profile is here and his name in Japanese is せんとくん.

2 Responses to 'Sento-kun'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Sento-kun'.

  1. Mark said, on April 30th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    Is Sento-kun based on a USA cartoon character? Look at this comparison here:

    http://www.letsjapan.markmode.com/index.php/2008/04/25/ugly-mascot-valuable-free-publicity/

  2. Modern Japanese Mascots at Japan Blog said, on May 14th, 2008 at 8:14 am

    [...] product or service and many companies are utilizing mascots to benefit their advertising campaign. In Japan, even mascots come in quirky – and sometimes controversial – [...]

Leave a Reply