Nakajima USA, Inc., is an American toy manufacturer, founded in 2000. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nakajima Japan, a family run company founded in 1919. A seasoned company in the design and manufacture of licensed plush, collectible and seasonal toys and gifts, Nakajima USA currently produces and distributes a wide range of lifestyle products under a master license agreement for

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and produces products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories which are sold ...

Inc. as well as the company’s signature characters. Nakajima USA has produced and distributed lifestyle products for brands including Angry Little Girls, Harajuku Lovers and

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

. Nakajima USA operates in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The stores division, sales, marketing, finance and operations are based in Los Angeles, while warehouse facilities, customer service, credit and merchandise control and based in San Francisco.

History

Nakajima Corporation

* Founded in 1919 * CEO: Shinji Nakajima * Employees: 75 in Japan; 360 in the United States * Related Company: Partner Corporation, Nakajima USA, Inc. 1919: Founder and CEO Koichi Nakajima started celluloid Toy Plush in Kameido, Koto-ku in Japan 1945: Office moved from Kameido, Koto-ku to Chuo, Edogawa-ku where it is currently located 1953: Company organization changed to corporation 1953: Start producing inflatable vinyl toys 1959: Trade name changed to Nakajima Seisakusho. 1962: License contract with Walt Disney Company, produced floating ring, floating boat, and kids pool 1986: New head office building at 1-7-8 Chuo Edogawa-ku established 1988: Founds partner corporation Nakajima USA. Begins license contract with Sanrio. 1991: Trade name changed to Nakajima Corporation 1996: New organization with the new CEO Shinji Nakajima begins

Nakajima USA

In April 2004, Sanrio Co. Ltd., expanded its license to Nakajima USA to include all categories of products for US Sanrio Boutique Stores and specialty gift retailers. Nakajima USA currently assumes responsibility for the US boutique and retail stores business to include 49 independently run

stores, 47 Nakajima USA corporate-owned Sanrio stores, and the wholesale gift business to include 2000+ accounts nationwide. Today, Nakajima USA is Sanrio’s principle licensee and its primary partner for the Specialty Retail Channel in the US. Sanrio, best known for icon

Hello Kitty , also known by her full name , is a fictional Character (arts), character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphi ...

and home to many more characters including Chococat, My Melody, and Keroppi, celebrated its 50th anniversary in August 2010. Today, over 50,000 Sanrio-branded items are sold in over 70 countries around the world. In the Western Hemisphere Sanrio character-branded products are sold in upwards of 12,000 locations including department, specialty, national chain stores and over Sanrio Boutique stores. In 2020, Nakajima Japan head office was moved back to Kameido.

Prominent Sanrio characters

Badtz-Maru This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

Charmmy Kitty This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

Chococat This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

Cinnamoroll is a character series created by Sanrio in 2001, with character designs from Miyuki Okumura. The main character, Cinnamoroll, is a white puppy with chubby cheeks and long ears, blue eyes, pink cheeks, and a tail that resembles a cinnamon ro ...

Keroppi This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

Kuromi This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

Little Twin Stars This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

* My Melody * Sugarbunnies

Nakajima original characters

Pickles the Frog is an anthropomorphic frog character created by Nakajima Corporation. Overview In 1994, Nakajima Corporation introduced Pickles as part of the Spice Mix Series, based on the concept of "making fashionable plush toys as general goods". The Spi ...

Baby Coco An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

* Buta: Coron * Zou: Coron

Sanrio stores

Typically and in major metropolitan malls, Nakajima oversees 2 kinds of Sanrio Boutique stores. Corporate stores are owned and managed directly by the company while licensed stores are owned and operated by individual store owners in the region.

Flagship stores

Flagship stores are Sanrio Boutique stores over that offer a wide selection of Sanrio merchandise, including limited-edition and collector items, specialty products from Japan, “Sanrio Luxe” branded high-end items, and select licensed merchandise often not found in other Sanrio Boutiques. Nakajima-operated flagship stores can be found in New York City, NY, Ala Moana, HI, San Francisco, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Costa Mesa, CA, Orlando, FL, Chicago, IL, Garden State, NJ, and Houston, TX.

Merchandise/products

Each Sanrio Boutique store offers a wide range of products featuring Sanrio characters including stationery, clothing, cosmetics, accessories, home furnishing, toys and candy. New products are released every month. Nakajima USA also offers its own signature characters, with a fun line of ultra-soft plush and other popular product categories.

Future expansion

With the continued success of the licensed store concept, Sanrio-Nakajima hopes to focus on actively expanding its retail store operations and plans to do so primarily through the licensed store concept. Building on its numerous successful store operations in California and the west coast, Nakajima plans to bring the Sanrio Boutique store retail concept to states in the mid-west and the east coast in the very near future.

References

{{reflist

External links

Sanrio's Official English website
*http://www.franchise.com/business-opportunity/retail-store/candy/San-Rio/company-information.cfm *http://www.hoovers.com/company/Nakajima_Usa_Inc/rythrti-1.html
Nakajima Japan's official website
*https://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/sanrioluxe?ref=ts *https://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/hellokitty?ref=ts Toy companies of the United States Sanrio American subsidiaries of foreign companies