Shintaro Tsuji

🇯🇵 Shintaro Tsuji

🎀 The man who built an empire on friendship

He didn’t want to invent a toy – he wanted to sell friendship as a product. Shintaro Tsuji realized early on that small, thoughtful gifts could bring people closer together. On this idea of “social communication” he built an entire business – creating cute characters meant as gestures of kindness.

That’s how Hello Kitty was born: a global icon, created from the simple wish to help people be there for each other.

💡 Did you know? A key part of her global success is her missing mouth. Tsuji wanted people to project their own feelings onto her – happy when you are, sad when you are.

👉 Lesson learned: Great brands aren’t always built on tech or capital. Often, their strength lies in meeting a deeply human need – in this case, the simple desire for affection.