Justice For Chiitan!
How Susaki’s unofficial Tourism Ambassador with a penchant for utter chaos was disowned by the city, yet still retains a place in the hearts of millions.
The birth and rise of Chiitan
Let’s go all the way back to 2013 in the city of Susaki, Kochi Prefecture, Japan. It was in this year that the city officials unveiled the official mascot of the city, named Shinjo-kun. The mascot is a depiction of the now extinct Japanese River Otter, who wears a Nabeyaki Ramen hat. Why did they choose this mascot? Well, because the Shinjo River, which runs through Susaki, is the site of the last known sighting of the species in 1979.
Fast forward to 2016, and Susaki decided to make an Asian Small-Clawed Otter, named Chiitan, its honorary tourism ambassador. (At this point I think it’s safe to assume that Susaki is quite attached to anything Otter related, which in turn makes me quite keen to visit, as I love Otters.) Chiitan went on to have its own Public Access TV show and was described to have “adorable squeaks that could melt even the coldest hearts”.
After the unprecedented success of the adorable, heart melting critter, Chiitan’s team decided that in order to increase its popularity even further, they should introduce a counterpart “mascot” which could appear alongside Shinjo-kun. The mascot we now know as Chiitan was even designed by the same illustrator who had previously designed Shinjo-kun, Koh Hashibiro. The character is described as a perpetually 0-year-old Fairy Otter with no gender, wears a turtle called Kame-chan as a hat and has a penchant for absolute chaos. This, however, is something that we will go into later.
(As a side note, I have a three year old. The fact that Chiitan is perpetually, essentially, a toddler may explain its need to cause chaos and utter disregard for any rules it encounters.)
After being formally associated with the city by public officials, Chiitan went on to make appearances alongside Shinjo-kun at many public events. The pair of mascots were often seen in each other's presence, becoming “best friends” in the eyes of the general public. Not only did Chiitan have success alongside his friend, but it also managed to grow in popularity on its own. Chiitan was even hired by Square Enix in order to promote the game Just Cause 4. To this day, it has profiles on all platforms of social media with millions of followers from all corners of the planet, yet it is these very profiles that soon ended up landing Chiitan in hot water with the city of Susaki.
Chaos reigns supreme
While Chiitan appears, at first glance, to be an adorable and huggable giant plushie, in reality it is completely chaotic (though I’ll leave you to decide whether it leans more towards good or evil). From the very beginning, Chiitan’s social media posts were controversial at best. The unaging fairy otter displays little to no regard for its own personal safety, let alone the safety of anyone else unfortunate (or fortunate) enough to be involved with its antics.
The Japan Times, a national newspaper within the country, described Chiitan’s acts as “slapstick” and likened its behaviour to that which we in the Western world are accustomed to from the “genius minds” who brought us Jackass. Some of the stunts performed by Chiitan include:
Flying into metal boxes (with or without another person behind them)
Experiencing a wind tunnel
Jumping across a gap with the aid of a grappling hook
Jumping from a height while using a number of umbrellas glued together to break its fall
In one particular video starring Chiitan alongside Shinjo-kun, the former is seen holding a baseball bat while the latter is dressed as a gangster. The caption, which I happen to love because I am a sucker for puns, stated "We're the bosses, don't mess with us or we'll commit otterocities." In another video, starring Chiitan alone, the Otter mascot is simply seen stuffing a baseball bat down its suit before exiting the room. This video is simply titled “Chiitan Visits Your House”.
By the time January 2019 rolled around, the officials of Susaki had received over 100 complaints from people across Japan, many of whom had inadvertently mistaken Chiitan for its counterpart, Shinjo-kun. After receiving these complaints, the officials of the city made the decision to suspend all ties with Chiitan, at first temporarily, though they never picked up those ties again. They even threatened to sue the company responsible for Chiitan, stating that the city held the copyright for its likeness. I couldn’t establish whether this threat was acted upon, though.
After losing his officially unofficial status, Chiitan lost the chance to star in his own video game, which had been in the works with Sega, as well as the chance to star in his own anime, which had been in the works with TV Tokyo. Twitter suspended numerous regional Chiitan accounts, leading to Chiitan’s team creating new accounts with the handles of “@helpchiitan” for their English speaking fans and “@chiitan7407” for their native Japanese fans. These new profiles were supported by John Oliver (see below) and Tony Hawk, of all people.
Chiijohn
Following the news that Chiitan had been dropped from official association with Susaki, John Oliver picked up the news on an episode of Last Week Tonight on HBO. While bringing Chiitan and his antics to the attention of a myriad of new fans in America, Oliver also devised a plan to send his very own new mascot, Chiijohn, to Susaki to find Shinjo-kun in an attempt to put Shinjo-kun out of his lonely misery since losing Chiitan. Chiijohn, who Oliver described as a 41-year-old nearsighted English fairy baby, went on an adventure from Tokyo to Susaki, managing to find Shinjo-kun and befriending the otter, going on to play arcade games and watch the sunset together; it was all very cute.
However, upon hearing that Chiijohn had “stolen its friend”, Chiitan went on a social media campaign against Oliver, which resulted in many hilarious moments including:
Chiitan publicly challenging John Oliver to a “no holds barred fight”
Chiitan posting WWE style challenges aimed at John Oliver
Chiitan stating that it wants to “give John Oliver a chance to explode through a table"
Chiitan attempting to enlist the assistance of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
Upon seeing the backlash for his made-up mascot’s newfound friendship with the giant Japanese Otter, Oliver responded with a Tweet stating "I'm in a public beef with an unsanctioned Japanese otter. I needed this.”
Takeshi’s Castle
Like most of you, I probably would have been blissfully unaware of Chiitan’s existence if it were not for the fact that it appears on the new season of Takeshi’s Castle, released on Amazon Prime Video in the UK on August 30th (though already available to my US readers!). Watching this chaotic, strange giant Otter running around the obstacle courses, I fell in love with the character and it is this that has led me to write this article.
Honestly, researching Chiitan and the story of his creation and chaotic reign over the internet has filled me with utter joy for days now. I’ve watched the videos, read the news stories and even tracked down the Last Week Tonight episode (here - you should watch, it’s hilarious) in order to fully understand the glory that is this 0-year-old Fairy Otter in its Turtle hat.
Chiitan isn’t entirely chaotic evil. After the death of George Floyd in 2020, Chiitan appeared in a video supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and donated ¥10,498 to the cause. For this and many other reasons, I’m sure Chiitan has a heart of gold underneath his masochistic front. I don’t believe that Chiitan ever deserved to be demonised for its chaotic behaviour and clearly I’m not alone, as the mascot is still followed by millions of people all over the world.
#JUSTICEFORCHIITAN!!!