What Is Sanrio? The Company Behind Hello Kitty and 450+ Characters, Explained by Marine

Article

Sanrio has created over 450 characters — and Hello Kitty, its most famous face, hasn't even topped the company's own fan ranking in seven years.

From Silk to "Small Gift, Big Smile"

Shintaro Tsuji founded Sanrio in Tokyo on August 10, 1960, originally as the Yamanashi Silk Company. When strawberry-decorated rubber sandals proved unexpectedly popular, the company's guiding "small gift, big smile" philosophy was born — turning everyday goods into emotionally meaningful presents. The company took its current name, Sanrio, in 1973, a coined term meaning roughly "saintly river of culture and friendship."

A Character Roster Bigger Than Just Hello Kitty

Sanrio has created over 450 characters, and holds an annual fan vote, the Sanrio Character Ranking, drawing over 70 million votes in 2026. That year's results placed Pompompurin first overall, with Cinnamoroll second and Pochacco third — while Hello Kitty, despite her global recognition, missed the top ranking for the seventh consecutive year, a telling sign of just how deep Sanrio's character roster actually runs.

What To Know

Learning that Hello Kitty has actually lost the official Sanrio character popularity ranking seven years running, despite remaining the brand's most globally recognized face, is a genuinely surprising fact that reframes Sanrio as a much bigger, more actively competitive character ecosystem than casual fans often assume.

Sanrio's origin story, pivoting from silk goods to strawberry-decorated rubber sandals, reflects a common pattern among Japan's most successful character-goods companies: starting with ordinary manufactured products and discovering that adding an emotionally appealing design was the real business breakthrough.

What Fans Are Saying

• "450+ characters is way more than most people realize Sanrio has created."
• "Hello Kitty missing the top ranking 7 years running is genuinely surprising."
• "70 million votes for a character poll shows how big this fandom really is."

Original Japanese

• 「450以上のキャラクターがいるとは、想像以上の規模でした」
• 「ハローキティが7年連続で1位を逃しているのは意外です」
• 「7000万票というのは、ファン層の大きさを物語っていますね」

Easy Japanese

「サンリオ」は、1960年創業の日本の会社です。ハローキティなど、450以上のキャラクターを生み出してきました。