Chisato Moritaka -- Kumamon-mon （くまモンもん）

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpellgen/6967008122

In terms of pop culture, I could say that a couple of aspects attached to the United States would be beauty and glamour. In Japan, I think the big word there is cuteness. Maid cafes, AKB48 and all of history's aidoru come into play here, and of course, Japan has all those yuru kyara（ゆるキャラ）representing prefectures, cities, businesses and all other campaigns.

Yuru kyara are all those cute mascot characters which have grown so much in number that they should probably deserve their own citizenship. Arguably the most famous one is the twitchy-to-the-nth-degree Funassyi（ふなっしー）representing the city of Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture which happens to sit right next to my old city of Ichikawa. I always wondered about whether Ichikawa even had a yuru kyara, and apparently it does. Her name is Manarin（マナりん）.

However, No. 2 might be a more laid-back fellow much further south. This is Kumamon the bear who promotes Kumamoto Prefecture. For all you Trekkies, this was (or will be) the birthplace for Keiko Ishikawa, the wife of Miles O'Brien, good ol' engineer from the USS Enterprise and later on, Deep Space Nine.

I found out from Wikipedia that Kumamon actually won the Yuru-Kyara Grand Prix of 2011, and then a couple of years later, he even got his own adorable song. Titled "Kumamon-mon", I discovered the tune while I was skimming through the article for singer-songwriter KAN (to write up on one of his older albums) since he was the one who composed and co-wrote the song along with Kundo Koyama（小山薫堂）for release as a single in September 2013. You may want to hold off on any sugary treats for a while after listening to and watching the video. And who better to sing the song than former techno aidoru Chisato Moritaka (森高千里...she hits the "mon" part just perfectly)? I think Moritaka and KAN make a great combination for a cutesy ditty like this.

Apparently, this is the official music video for "Kumamon-mon" which peaked at No. 13 on Oricon.

To leave off, I just have to provide footage of the legendary Funassyi.

Kristi Lu Stout of CNN...you always made my day when I saw you on CNN International. It is indeed a pleasure to see you lose it to Funassyi.