Reaction to Kitty-chan and friends has been so positive that they’ll be sticking around a little longer at regional airport.

Renaming local landmarks can be a decisive undertaking, especially when dealing with facilities that have been around long enough that full-grown adults in the community have been using the old name for their whole lives. There was very little grumbling, though, back in the spring when Japan’s Oita Airport, which opened in 1971 got a new name. Why? Because the new name is Oita Hello Kitty Airport.

The Sanrio star is not only one of Japan’s favorite characters, she’s also been a sort of goodwill ambassador for the country since long before “Cool Japan” became a solidified concept or “kawaii culture” became an understandable term to people from overseas. So with that mixture of love and respect, there was no pushback against the Oita Hello Kitty Airport renaming, and since the changeover in April, travelers using the airport have reacted very positively to not only the name, but the various Sanio-themed decorations that have been installed as well. It’s not like this is just arbitrarily borrowing Kitty-chan’s star power, either, as the Sanrio-themed amusement park Harmonyland is also in Oita, and less than half an hour by car from the airport.

However, the impetus for the renaming is actually an event taking place elsewhere in Japan. Oita’s airport began using its new name on April 13 to coincide with the opening of the Expo 2025 in Osaka, hoping to entice some travelers visiting the world’s fair to add a side-trip to Oita to their itineraries. Because of that, the airport was scheduled to drop the “Hello Kitty” and go back to being the plain old Oita Airport after October 13, the final day of the expo.

As that date has drawn nearer, though, a question seems to have arisen. Since Hello Kitty was popular long before the expo opened, and she’s going to remain so after it ends, there’s really no rush to remove Kitty-chan from the building just because Expo 2025 is over, is there?

So Oita government and airport representatives met with Sanrio again, and they’ve decided to extend their partnership Oita Hello Kitty Airport name and theming, citing the overwhelmingly positive feedback they’ve gotten from travelers as well as the favorable reactions on social and mass media, including overseas sources.

Under the new agreement, the facility will now remain the Oita Hello Kitty Airport through to the end of 2025, meaning that even if you’re not planning to go to Expo 2025, if you’ve got a Japan trip lined up as part of your Christmas vacation, or any of your travel plans this fall, then you’ve still got time to fly into Kitty-chan’s airport, and even if you’ve already had the pleasure of doing so, the plan is to add new decorations now that the Sanrio pals will be hanging around for an additional two and a half months. And hey, if the positive reactions keep going, who knows, maybe we’ll see yet another extension that takes the partnership into 2026.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/TOS TV Oita, TBS/Oita Broadcasting System
Images: PR Times
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