Japanese sushi chain ends Chiikawa rollout after staff caught selling freebies online
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TOKYO, Sept 7 : A Japanese sushi chain was forced to cancel a popular marketing campaign with goods featuring cute hamster-like characters from the hit franchise “Chiikawa” after its staff stole the freebies to resell online.
Conveyor-belt chain Kura Sushi launched its Chiikawa campaign on August 21 with plans to distribute a limited number of branded items like pouches and plates on a first-come-first-served basis through the end of September. It also offered customers a chance to win key chains, magnets and other trinkets by trading in empty sushi plates for a turn at a prize-yielding game machine.
Earlier this month, Kura Sushi spokesperson Hiroyuki Kosaka told Reuters that virtually every table at its restaurants offering the Chiikawa giveaways had been booked for the rest of the month.
But on Sunday, the company abruptly ended the campaign after it confirmed what many fans had suspected: that store staff had stolen the goods and sold them online. Since then, Kura Sushi’s stores have been inundated with calls to cancel reservations, Kosaka said.
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“We are truly sorry for causing the trouble and disappointing customers,” he said.
Kura Sushi’s shares closed down 2.5 per cent at 1,696 yen on Monday in Tokyo, compared with a 0.55 per cent rise for the broader TOPIX index.
The marketing debacle is the latest example of how corporate collaborations with popular franchises can go awry.
Last year, McDonald’s Japan sparked controversy after separate tie-ups with Chiikawa and Pokemon prompted many customers to buy large quantities of Happy Meals to get the free toys to resell, while disposing of the food.
CULT-LIKE POPULARITY
Created in 2020, Chiikawa — a truncated version of the Japanese phrase meaning “something kind of small and cute” — has risen to a level of dizzying popularity to become one of Asia’s most sought-after licensing properties; its partners include Japanese airline ANA, Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo and Hong Kong jeweller Chow Tai Fook, which offers a collection of gold Chiikawa accessories.
Belying their cuddly appearance, Chiikawa characters live stressful lives filled with trials and tribulations: searching for work as day labourers, struggling with exams and stressing over salaries, to name a few. The jarring disconnect between their looks and grim predicaments has attracted a wide range of fans, including men, women and children.
Its maiden film released this year, “Chiikawa: The Secret of the Mermaid Island,” grossed 12.2 billion yen ($78 million) in Japan in just over a month, according to entertainment news website Mantanweb, further boosting the franchise’s popularity. Chiikawa’s X account has 5.4 million followers, among them Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama.
When Kura Sushi teamed up with Chiikawa for a second time in March 2024, same-store sales jumped 23 per cent from a year earlier. Customer response this time around went beyond expectations, spokesperson Kosaka said.
The company said it continued to investigate the theft but declined to elaborate.
The Chiikawa freebies have become collectables fetching lofty prices.
Mercari, Japan’s biggest online, second-hand market, had listings for a set of four Chiikawa-Kura Sushi cups and plates for 13,333 yen ($85.54) and a set of three cups for 9,500 yen. Kura Sushi said it had successfully asked Mercari to remove the collaboration items that were obtained illegitimately from its site.
($1 = 155.8600 yen)
Source: Reuters
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