(CNN) -- From a country which brought the world brands like Sony and Toyota, there's another name that's crept quietly to global prominence. Hello Kitty, the moon-faced cat with a bow in her hair and no mouth. Shintaro Tsuji, CEO of Sanrio, famous for its Hello Kitty brand, speaks in The Boardroom. She's one of 450 characters developed by Japan's Sanrio Group, but she's by far most popular -- the embodiment of what's known in Japan as Kawaii, or the culture of cute. Her image adorns some 50,000 objects, from cute, of course, to downright crazy. But there's nothing cute about the numbers. Hello Kitty is responsible for more than half of Sanrio's billion dollar annual turnover.
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Shintaro Tsuji, CEO of Sanrio speaks to Andrew Stevens in The Boardroom
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Sanrio's most famous character is Hello Kitty, a moon-faced cat
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Hello Kitty is responsible for more than half of Sanrio's billion dollar turnover
Her creator and founder of Sanrio is the effervescent 79-year-old @placeholder.