Shintaro Tsuji, the first CEO of Sanrio, a Japanese based company in Tokyo, known for the famous Hello Kitty doll, is set to retire at 92 and hand over the organization to his 31 year old grandson Tomokuni Tsuji.
Hello Kitty was created in 1974 by Yuko Shimizu and was introduced by Sanrio on March 5, 1975. By 2010, Sanrio had groomed Hello Kitty into a global marketing phenomenon, worth $6 billion a year. As of 2019, Hello Kitty is the second highest-grossing media franchise of all time (behind Pokemon), having generated $80 billion in lifetime retail sale.
Tomokuni Tsuji is currently a senior managing director in the company and coincidentally shares the same birthday with Hello Kitty (November 1), although 14 years younger.
“I want to transform the company to better respond to today’s rapidly changing business environment”, said Tomokuni Tsuji.
Sanrio was badly affected by the pandemic and has been experiencing some shaking in years now; annual net profit fell by 95% in the 2019/2020 fiscal year.
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