The mascot syndrome

One thing I find fascinating is how a country can embody a tradition of such and elegant and stylish style in design that co-exists with a form language that many in west would call childish or label as kitsch. Take the trend in Japan of putting small cute figure and mascots on “everything”. Examples could be figures on manholes, T-shirts, mobile phones not to mention that almost everyone’s desk in the office is covered with these cute figures. Furthermore, there is probably not any company or public service that doesn’t have its own cute mascot linked to its brand. The picture above is taken from the sport news in the main TV channel (NHK) some hours ago. In this case the mascots represent two different sport teams. I don’t know the reason for the “mascot syndrome”. Maybe it can, to some extent, be explained by the long tradition of using symbols and illustrations in communication….?