Chiitan
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About
Chiitan is an unofficial Japanese mascot for the town of Susaki based off a real otter of the same name. The mascot Chiitan grew popular online for its bizarre stunts and physical comedy antics. Susaki had previously named the real otter an honorary ambassador of tourism, but following the surge in mascot Chiitan's popularity, fired the real otter in an effort to disassociate from the mascot.
Origin
In January of 2018, the government of Susaki, Japan capitalized on the social media popularity of an otter named Chiitan[1] by naming the otter an honorary ambassador of tourism (otter Chiitan shown below).
カワウソちぃたんのインスタグラムの投稿はこちらに変更になりました＾＾
— カワウソちぃたん (@love_otter_love) January 22, 2019
♪カワウソちぃたんinstagram：https://t.co/rneMM1G0QM
これからはこっちで赤ちゃん時代から今のちぃたんまで投稿していきますのでフォローをしてくださいね＾＾pic.twitter.com/4VRU4jfVxX
The town's official mascot is named Shinjokun. It is an otter who wears a bowl of noodles on its head and participates in tame, family-friendly activities (shown below).[2]
After the otter Chiitan was named ambassador of tourism, a mascot version of Chiitan, who may share a designer with Shinjokun,[3] began posting on social media (first YouTube video shown below). The mascot was designed by Charando.[1]
Spread
Over the course of 2018, the mascot version of Chiitan grew popular with antics including silly stunts, falling, and mild violence. To date, its most popular YouTube video is a compilation of some of these moments, posted June 3rd, 2018 and gaining over 1.3 million views (shown below, left). Its second most popular video with 1.1 million views shows it playing with children in a park (shown below, right).
The mascot developed a significant social media presence, garnering over 275,000 YouTube subscribers[4] and 890,000 Twitter followers.[5] A second, unverified account posting Chiitan videos, @love2chiitan,[6] has over 1.28 million subscribers. It has over 612,000 followers on Instagram.[7]
However, the antics of the unofficial Chiitan mascot displeased the government of Susaki, causing them to fire the otter Chiitan as the city's honorary ambassador of tourism on January 18th, 2019.[8] Susaki is consulting a lawyer to look into if money made by the Chiitan mascot should go to city coffers.[1]
Various Examples
Search Interest
[1] New York Times – A Rogue Mascot Causes Headaches for a Japanese City
[3] Mondo Mascots – Meeting Chiitan
[6] Twitter – @love2chiitan
[8] Nippon – Western Japan City Sacks Otter as Tourism Ambassador
Top Comments
Nymphonomicon
Jan 24, 2019 at 12:59PM EST
Roth
Jan 23, 2019 at 02:25PM EST