World | Hello Kitty Hello, China: Meet Japan's New Envoy Japan tabs pop icon to bring in visitors from China By Nick McMaster Posted May 19, 2008 8:00 PM CDT Copied Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba shakes hands with kimono-clad Hello Kitty as South Korean singer Younha looks on at his office in Tokyo Monday, May 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) Hello Kitty has been tapped as Japan’s cultural envoy to China, the AP reports. Japan’s ministry of tourism chose the über-popular icon to represent the country in its drive to attract 10 million annual visitors to the islands. Last year, tourists from China and Hong Kong made up 16.5% of Japan's 8.35 million overseas visitors. Read These Next Trump commutes sentence of George Santos. ChatGPT is going to get sexy. Lots of people are worried. Nobody's sure why kids started shouting 'six seven.' English tests pull thousands of truckers off the road. Report an error