Hello Kitty Company Ends Collaboration with Japanese Spy Series

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Hello Kitty Company Ends Collaboration with Japanese Spy Series.

Sanrio has taken a decisive step: The company ended its commercial collaboration with the Japanese Netflix series “Vivant” and apologized to Chinese state media and social media users. The Hello Kitty company announced the termination on Weibo.

At the time of the decision, the second season of “Vivant” was airing. In the series, Masato Sakai plays an employee who becomes caught up in a web of international crime and espionage. The story does not treat Chinese agents lightly—and that is precisely where the criticism from China focused.

The Guardian reports why the retreat was more than a single marketing decision: China is strategically important to the company. According to Chinese media, Sanrio generated 781 million yuan in revenue there in the first half of the year, equivalent to around 117 million US dollars. That was more than 40 percent higher than in the same period of the previous year.

The Scene from October 4 Triggered a Political Storm

Chinese state media particularly criticized the portrayal of Chinese agents using “brutal violence” to torture members of a secret unit of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. The state-run tabloid Global Times described the portrayal as a “deliberate smear”—a targeted attempt to defame China.

Specifically, the controversy concerned the episode from October 4: A Chinese agent cuts off the fingers of a Japanese intelligence officer and stabs him in the stomach. Global Times said that the torture methods shown resembled those used by Japanese troops to torture Chinese civilians during the Second World War. By attributing such atrocities to modern Chinese characters, the series misrepresented the truth, it said.

The conflict therefore was not simply between a brand and a series. The criticism linked the story to the historical experience of the Second World War and to the current relationship between Beijing and Tokyo. According to the report, the first season, which is set in a fictional Central Asian country, did not attract comparable controversy. It was only the current second season that brought Chinese criticism.

Sanrio Says It Stands for “Values Such as Care and Connection”—And Announces Stricter Reviews

Sanrio did not attribute its retreat solely to pressure from China. In its statement, the company said the series had included elements that did not align with the company’s core values. It also pointed to its long corporate history: Since its founding, Sanrio had used characters to convey values such as care and connection.

This rationale is the truly remarkable part of the decision. Sanrio also announced that it would take the feedback “very seriously” and strengthen its review processes for all future collaborative projects. In doing so, the company was not only trying to end the current dispute but was also reassessing its approach to joint projects.

The move is also striking because the characters involved are not only Sanrio’s best-known mascots. In “Vivant,” merchandise appearances featured My Melody and Cinnamoroll. The retreat therefore affected a commercial partnership in which several globally popular Sanrio mascots were visible.

China’s Market Weight Explains Why Sanrio Had to Act Quickly

The background makes the urgency understandable. China is a key foreign market for Sanrio. The Tokyo-based company not only generated substantial revenue there in the first half of the year but also increased it significantly. Continuing to collaborate with a series that Chinese state media had criticized as a smear on the country would have posed a risk to the brand’s image in that market.

The case also comes during a tense phase in Japanese-Chinese relations. In November of the previous year, Japan’s conservative prime minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a diplomatic dispute when she told lawmakers that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger the deployment of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces if the conflict posed an existential threat to Japan. In the current month, Takaichi also said that she had recorded episodes of “Vivant” and wanted to watch them over the New Year holidays.

Only a few days before the reaction to Sanrio, French national team player Kylian Mbappé also faced a wave of boycotts: Several Chinese brands dropped him after he jokingly called Mao Zedong a “dictator”. The Real Madrid striker later apologized for his “thoughtless” remark.

Sanrio therefore stands for a broader tightening: In a sensitive market, it is not enough for entertainment products to be legally permissible. They must also align with public expectations and the values of the brand partner. The decision involving “Vivant” is therefore more than a single Netflix collaboration. It shows how quickly an entertainment brand appearance can turn into a politically charged brand conflict.