San-X is in charge of cuteness! Like Sanrio, this kawaii company is loved for its many, many adorable characters like Rilakkuma, the Sumikko Gurashi, and Jinbesan. Known for their cute looks and their quirks, all of the San-X characters are kawaii superstars! Get your gear ready, because we’re going on an adventure to learn more about the strange, colorful, and cute world of San-X!
- Japanese name: サンエックス (San Ekksu)
- Company motto: Together forever
- Date of establishment: April 1932
- Original name: Chida Handler
- Number of San-X characters: More than 80
- Fun fact: San-X characters are often featured in McDonald's Happy Meal toys in Japan!
WHAT IS SAN-X?
San-X is a Japanese kawaii company based in Tokyo. It specializes in making people smile with their roster of kawaii characters like Rilakkuma, Jinbesan, the Sumikko Gurashi gang, and many, many others. The characters that San-X makes aren’t just filled with cuteness - they have especially endearing personalities and strange quirks too! These cuties are the stars that take center stage in all the cute stationery items, toys, and collectibles, that San-X makes.
IS SAN-X AND SANRIO THE SAME?
Sure, both Sanrio and San-X might have San in their name, but these two companies aren’t the same! Established in the Showa period of Japan in 1932, San-X has been around longer than Sanrio. However, it took quite a while for San-X to start focusing on making kawaii characters. You see, it wasn’t until 1998 that San-X decided to focus on full-scale character development and licensing.
Not only that but Sanrio and San-X have different approaches when creating their kawaii superstars. While Sanrio’s characters are pretty much kawaii on the inside and outside, San-X’s characters have little quirks that make them special. Take for example the Sumikko Gurashi - these cuties are so shy that they always prefer to live their lives in corners! You can read more about them in our cute Sumikko Gurashi blog.
THE KAWAII HISTORY OF SAN-X
When San-X was founded in April 1932, it was originally named Chida Handler. The company made stationery products that featured scenic shots and illustrations. It wasn’t until fifty years later in 1973 that the company was renamed San-X. Though San-X began making items with cute characters, its main focus was still on artistic illustrations.
Then, in 1995, character designer Hikaru Suemasa created the lazy and droopy little panda Tarepanda for San-X. It was a huge hit! Tarepanda was loved so much because people couldn’t help but feel love for a melting, worn-out, little panda.
Thanks to Tarepanda’s success, San-X decided to turn solely into a company that developed cute characters. Now, kawaii fanatics have other loveable cuties like Mamegoma, Jinbesan, and Rilakkuma! And it officially started with a droopy panda!
WHAT DOES THE NAME SAN-X MEAN?
The name San-X actually comes from an earlier logo of the Chiba Handler company which was a row of three X characters. You see, “San” means three in Japanese. Since the logo had three X’s, it made sense to call it “San-X” or “three x,” in English. These days the X in the current San-X logo is illustrated as a four-leaf clover to signify good luck.
WHAT IS SAN-X IN JAPANESE?
In Japanese, San-X is written as サンエックス. It’s not that difficult to pronounce in Japanese either! You just say “San” and then add “Ekkusu” in the end. All together, “San Ekkusu.” Try rolling it off your tongue and see how easy it is to say!
WHERE IS SAN-X LOCATED?
Though not as large as Sanrio, San-X has been a pretty successful kawaii company. It has several branches around Japan with offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Saitama, and Hiroshima. However, the company’s base of operations is right in the center of the land of the rising sun. That’s right, the main office of San-X can be found right in Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo!
WHO WAS SAN-X’S FIRST KAWAII CHARACTER?
No, San-X’s first character isn’t Tarepanda or Mamegoma. The first kawaii character San-X ever had was the Rompish Clown! It made its debut 1979, six years after Chida Handler was renamed San-X. This original San-X character is a cutesy little clown that’s often seen throwing around confetti while juggling, balancing on unicycles, and riding unicorns.
HOW MANY SAN-X CHARACTERS ARE THERE?
Though San-X doesn’t have as many characters as Sanrio, it does have quite a lot in its roster. Right now, it has more than 80 cuties in its lineup. Some of the most popular characters from San-X include the calming whale shark Jinbesan, the super shy Sumikko Gurashi, the left-over plushies of the Sentimental Circus, and of course, Rilakkuma.
If you’d like to learn more about all the cuties that San-X has to offer, you can check out our ultimate list of Sanrio Characters. Just make sure you’ve got some yummy snacks with you because we listed down every single one! We're telling you, it's pretty long!
MEET SAN-X’S SUPERSTAR
If Sanrio has Hello Kitty, then San-X has Rilakkuma! This lazy bear is San-X’s biggest hit, ranking as the fifth most popular character in a survey of the Character Databank which was held sometime in May 2010. Not only does Rilakkuma take the spotlight in Japanese picture books and video games, but there are also couple of cute Rilakkuma Shows from Netflix! He’s a kawaii superstar!
Why is Rilakkuma so popular you ask? Well, for some cute reason, this laid-back bear has become the Japanese symbol of self-care. Rilakkuma spends most of his time napping, watching TV, eating good food, and generally just chilling out. He’s the pinnacle of kawaii rest and relaxation! If you want to learn more about this lazy cutie, you can read more about him in our Rilakkuma blog!
EXPLORING THE SAN-X EXHIBITION
In 2023, San-X decided to have a grand exhibition to celebrate 90 years of delivering cuteness! Held in the Matsuya Ginza building in Tokyo, the event showcased never-before-released character drawings, art installations, and other special San-X items.
Hoping to make it easy for kawaii fanatics all around Japan to visit the exhibition, San-X decided to add four additional locations including the Fukuoka Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Shizuoka, Prefecture, and Osaka Prefecture. It was a good choice since more fans had a chance to celebrate San-X’s 90th year anniversary!
LET’S PLAY WITH SAN-X!
Kawaii fans love playing with cuties from San-X! Aside from Rilakkuma and Sumikko Gurashi videogames, San-X has a line of character games for fans to enjoy. That includes Nintendo DS games like “San X Land - Let’s play at the Theme Park,” “San-X Character Search Land,” and “San-X Character Channel - All Star Gathering.” There’s also the popular San-X app called “Sumi Sumi” where fans solve fun, cute puzzles!
RELAX AT SAN-X CAFES
San-X doesn’t have its own cafe, but its characters do have cafes. Rilakkuma has had several pop-up cafes which include the Rilakkuma 20th anniversary cafe in Shinjuku, the Rilakkuma Glamping pop-up cafe in Tokyo, and the Rilakkuma Book Cafe in Osaka. They all served delicious Rilakkuma-themed treats and sometimes they sold special Rilakkuma plushies and Rilakkuma collectibles!
Being as popular as he is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Rilakkuma also has his own permanent cafe in Kyoto. The cafe is called the Rilakkuma Sabo Tea House. It’s an onsen-themed cafe with special Rilakkuma tea, desserts, and classic Japanese meals! You can also find onsen-themed Rilakkuma merch in the shop right next to the Tea House.
Of course, Rilakkuma isn’t the only San-X cutie to have his own pop-up cafes. There were also cafes for popular characters like the Sumikko Gurashi, the Sentimental Circus, and Jinbesan. Though they don’t happen as often as Rilakkuma, these pop-up cafes let kawaii fans taste goodies together with other San-X cuties.
BINGE-WATCHING SAN-X SHOWS
San-X characters are so popular, some of them have their own anime shows and movies. Like we mentioned earlier, Rilakkuma, the poster bear of San-X has his own shows from Netflix. The first one is “Rilakkuma and Kaoru,” while the second is “Rilakkuma’s Themepark Adventure.” Made using stop-motion animation, these shows have been praised as downright cute and calming!
Not to be beaten by Rilakkuma, the Sumikko Gurashi also has three animated movies for fans to enjoy. The first movie Sumikko Gurashi The Movie- The Popup Book and the Secret Child won Best Animation of the Year in 2019. The second and third Sumikko Gurashi movies were released in 2021 and 2023 respectively. They also did pretty well among fans.
SAN-X YOUTUBE SENSATIONS!
While not all San-X characters get their own animated shows, San-X creates fun little videos for them on YouTube. On the official San-X YouTube channel you can find a variety of content that includes short animated videos, dance numbers, songs, and fun comedy bits. The channel has content for San-X cuties like Rilakkuma, Sumikko Gurashi, Jinbesan, Corocoro Coronya, Mamegoma, the Sentimental Circus, Tarepanda, the Chickip Dancers, and many others. You can read all about the different cuties San-X has to offer in our Complete List of San-X Characters.
SAN-X CHARACTERS IN THE POLICE FORCE
San-X characters are so well-loved in Japan, that they’ve even been made into honorary members of the Japanese Police Force. In 2021, the prefecture of Saitama in Japan decided to appoint the cute, relaxed bear Rilakkuma as its Police Traffic Safety Public Relations Ambassador. That’s a pretty big job for a lazy bear if you ask me!
Rilakkuma wasn’t the only one given the job though. The shy Sumikko Gurashi gang was also commissioned to join the Police force, not once, but twice. First, the Sumikkos became the Kanagawa Police Child Safety Ambassador in 2022. Then, a year after that in 2023, they also became the Toyama Prefectural Police Kizuna Ambassador! You can read more about the shy gang's exploits in our Sumikko Gurashi blog.
CUTE COLLABS WITH SAN-X
It should come as no surprise that everyone wants to work together with the cuties from San-X! They make everything more kawaii. San-X characters have collaborated with big names like Uniqlo, Tower Records, Maison De Fluer, Lukfook Jewelry, and more.
Seeing how characters like Rilakkuma and the Sumikko Gurashi are big on food, it’s also not shocking to see San-X characters getting deals with big names in the food industry. We’re talking big brands like Baskin Robins, Mister Donuts, Marie Biscuits, Lotte Choco Pie, you name it!
WHERE CAN I BUY SAN-X GOODIES?
San-X items are everywhere in Japan! Not only are there a handful of Rilakkuma specialty stores in Tokyo, but you can also find lots of San-X merchandise in places like the Tokyo Characters Street Shop, Kiddyland in Harajuku, and more.
If you don’t have the time or money to travel to Japan to find San-X goodies, you don’t have to worry. You can check our San-X collection on Blippo. We have all kinds of San-X plushies, San-X pouches, San-X home goods, and other items for you to brighten up your home!
SMILE MORE WITH SAN-X
So there you have it! That’s everything you need to know about the cute and quirky world of San-X. Today we’ve learned about San-X’s history, its popular characters, its movies, games, cafes, shops, and kawaii San-X merch.
Do you have any favorite San-X character? What do you like the most about them? What’s your favorite San-X item? Let us know in the comment section! We love hearing from kawaii fans all around the world!