Cuddly mascots face the chop in Japanese cuteness cull
While some puppets become lucrative national celebrities, most are condemned to obscurity
Dozens of state-funded cuddly mascots could be culled in western Japan after a local authority found the public doesn't recognise many of them, as managers look to rein in an obsession with cuteness.
Thousands of yuru-kyara ("laid-back characters") have been created all over Japan by police, traffic safety officials, tax offices, libraries and even prisons in to try and press home various messages to a public particularly susceptible to oversized puppets.
The most successful go on to become national celebrities, playing their part in an industry worth tens of billions of dollars a year in merchandising alone.
Creations such as Kumamon - a tubby black bear used to promote a lesser-known part of southern Japan - are instantly-recognisable motifs that have become part of the country's cultural landscape. But the huge number of yuru-kyara condemns most to obscurity.
Now Osaka prefecture has decided it is time for a cull, and is looking to trim its stable of 45 yuru-kyara to concentrate its efforts on a few more-recognisable characters that can be used across departments.