Sanrio President and CEO Tomokuni Tsuji speaks at the opening ceremony of the Content IP Market 2023 at COEX in Seoul, Nov. 28. Courtesy of the Korea Creative Content Agency
The chief executive officer of Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the Hello Kitty franchise, said Tuesday his company was looking to broaden cooperation with K-pop artists.
Sanrio was “considering to expand collaboration with K-pop idols,” President and CEO Tomokuni Tsuji said during his keynote speech at the Content IP Market 2023 in Seoul hosted by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The Japanese company has already closely worked with K-pop stars to create content and related goods, including boy group NCT and the 11-member act JO1, which was formed with “Produce 101 Japan” winners.
“After we shared the process of idols creating characters by themselves on YouTube, we could see people became the fans of the characters their idols created,” he said, calling it “very successful” examples of a content business.
“The entertainment business that we are pursuing cannot be achieved alone,” he said, “In that sense, the Sanrio-Korea cooperation is very crucial.”
The CEO also emphasized the long-running success of Sanrio lies in the fact that the company has never stopped creating a variety of characters, which has totaled around 450 since it began operation in 1960.
A grandson of Sanrio’s founder Shintaro Tsuji, he took the helm of the company in 2020.
The comprehensive content IP business event runs until Thursday at the COEX convention hall. (Yonhap)
