The Japan Times 63.2%
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
By Yukana Inoue - 7/6/2026, 5:42 AM - 73 words
Faulty reasoning signals
- Confirmation Bias - 0%
- Anchoring Bias - 0%
- Availability Heuristic - 11% (8 hits)
- Representativeness Heuristic - 0%
- Hindsight Bias - 0%
- Overconfidence Bias - 0%
- Framing Effect - 11% (8 hits)
- Loss Aversion - 0%
- Status Quo Bias - 0%
- Sunk Cost Effect - 0%
- Optimism Bias - 12.3% (9 hits)
- Pessimism Bias - 0%
Article text
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
An empathetic, hard-working pink rabbit dressed in white underpants ends up in humorously unfortunate circumstances after doing a good deed, talking of its mixed emotions with perpetually teary eyes.
Meet Opanchu Usagi, one of Japan’s latest obsessions.
Born on social media platforms in 2022, the character created by Kawaisouni!
(which roughly translates to “poor thing!”)
has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.