Culture | The queen of kawaii

Hello Kitty, still cute at 50

The face that launched a thousand products

A life-size Hello Kitty surrounded by smaller toys at the party for Hello Kitty's 45th birthday in the Mall of Berlin, Germany, November 14th 2019
More than a felinePhotograph: Avalon
|TOKYO

MOST HAVE to wait until their centenary to receive birthday wishes from the king of Britain. But King Charles III made an exception for “a self-made entrepreneur worth billions of dollars and a unicef children’s ambassador on top”. The monarch was feting a figure more recognisable than any billionaire or emissary: Hello Kitty, who turns 50 this year.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Still cute at 50”

From the November 2nd 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Angela Merkel in Frankfurt, Germany in December 1991

Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation

But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds

Blue books forming a winner rosette on a red background

The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist

Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies


Elon Musk speaks at the Milken Institute's Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

What to read to understand Elon Musk

The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction


Tech and religion are very much alike

They both have gods, rich institutions and secretive cultures

Woodrow Wilson’s reputation continues to decline

A dispassionate new biography chronicles the former president’s hostility to suffrage

The cult of Jordan Peterson

What the Canadian intellectual gets right about young men