San-X


San-X is one of the largest character oriented stationary and gift manufacturing companies in Japan. Since 1980, San-X has created more than 800 characters, with 2 to 3 new characters each month totaling to about 30 new characters per year. According to San-X, their most famous characters are Tarepanda, Kogepan, Nyan Nyan Nyanko, Rilakkuma, and AfroKen.

San-X aims to be a company that hopes to provide sparkle and meaningful messages to a wide variety of targets through its character business.

History

April 1932
The first company president Kyozo Chida established CHIDA HANDLER as a private business at Kandatachou 2-6 in the Chiyoda district of Tokyo.

October 1941
The company was reorganized from a private business to a limited company.

March 1945
Due to World War II, with little to no distribution of raw materials as well as the company employees being called upon and drafted, the company temporarily closed.

March 1946
The company was able to resume, however, they were limited to within the Tokyo Metropolitan area.

April 1957
Throughout the country, about 400 clients and stores were established, and thus a domestic sales network was completed.

December 1957
The company converted to a joint stock corporation.

February 1970
The company expanded and constructed new factories in Koshigaya of Saitama Prefecture.

April 1973
A new head office was completed in Kanda.

May 1973
Without change to the trademark, the name of CHIDA HANDLER Co. Ltd. was changed to SAN-X Co. Ltd.

1980
San-X began to create original characters for merchandise.

January 1984
Kyozo Chida passed away and his second son, Masao Chida was inaugurated as the company president.

July 1986
A general merchandise distributor center was completed in Koshigaya.

Name and Logo


In April 1932, Kyozo Chida first established the company as CHIDA HANDLER. In May 1973, the name was changed from CHIDA HANDLER Co. Ltd. to SAN-X Co. Ltd. A possibility for where the name San-X comes from is based on the original logo of the company, which consisted of a shape of three people standing next to each who looked like X’s. As “san” in Japanese means “three,” the name could be translated as “Three X’s.” In 2000, San-X adopted a new logo where the SAN was changed to lower-case letters and the X was replaced with a four-leaved clover.
San-X is copyright the respective owners. I claim no ownership to the company or their characters. This site is simply for my translation hobby.