KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2020 - 15:31 | All, Japan

Products bearing the image of "Kumamon," the black bear mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture, racked up sales of at least 157.9 billion yen ($1.4 billion) in 2019, the local government said Friday.

Sales have hit fresh record highs every year since 2011 when the prefectural government began conducting the survey. Total sales since that time are upwards of 810 billion yen.

"Products supporting Kumamoto earthquake reconstruction efforts, and those using illustrations (of Kumamon) overseas have grown steadily. I hope people will continue to support the mascot," Kumamoto Gov. Ikuo Kabashima told a press conference.

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To come up with the annual figure, the local government tallies the sales of businesses using the mascot in their marketing that responded to the survey.

Japanese businesses can produce and sell products featuring the much-loved mascot free of charge upon receiving approval from the prefectural government.

In 2018, it began allowing overseas businesses also to produce and sell products using Kumamon due to the mascot's growing popularity in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of Asia in recent years.