How did Hello Kitty help fight the rise of underage escort services?

Is there a secret, dark history lurking behind those friendly lucky cat statues that welcome you into your favorite Chinese take out place?

This week on Seemingly Unrelated we dive into the Maneki-neko, aka Beckoning Cat, aka Lucky Cat, which has become a symbol of pan-Asian businesses around the world. All in pursuit of answering the question: why is this guy so popular?

We'll explore the potential heroic legend of the Maneki-neko, it's brief stint as a symbol of the Yoshiwara pleasure district in Tokyo, a journey through an oft ignored mass migration of servants to the Americas, and a special visit from Hello Kitty who is apparently not actually a cat?!

Find out all the secrets, and maybe some get some good fortune with episode 11 of Seemingly Unrelated!

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Here are the sources used to create this episode:

‘Anthropology 125s’. Accessed 17 February 2025. https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~wmmaurer/courses/anthro_money_2006/maneki.html.

BBC. ‘BBC World Service - Witness History - “I Created Hello Kitty”’. Accessed 17 February 2025. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/YR49cBP9YY9wzmSqxhTLDX/i-created-hello-kitty.

Frix, Noëlie. ‘Patriarchal State Projects and the Exploitation of Women: A Case Study of Japan’s Sex Industry (1870s-1950s)’. Journal of Human Trafficking, 4 May 2023. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23322705.2023.2205815.

History. ‘The Fascinating History behind the Popular “Waving Lucky Cat”’, 17 February 2025. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/the-fascinating-history-behind-the-popular-waving-lucky-cat.

LIVE JAPAN. ‘Gotokuji Temple: Tokyo’s Maneki Neko “Lucky Cat” Temple - A Must-Visit for Cat Lovers! | LIVE JAPAN Travel Guide’. Accessed 17 February 2025. https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-shimokitazawa/article-a0001417/.

Lublin, Elizabeth D. ‘Sex Work during the Tokugawa Era’. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.71.

Lucky Cat Museum. ‘Lucky Cat Museum’. Accessed 17 February 2025. https://ruby-wombat-8556.squarespace.com.

Mihalopoulos, Bill. ‘Freedom, Slavery, and the Meiji Restoration: Revisiting the Maria Luz Incident’. In Revisiting Japan’s Restoration. Routledge, 2021.

‘New Histories - Women in Japanese History: A Snapshot Through Hello Kitty’. Accessed 17 February 2025. https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2021-22/volume-22/women-in-japanese-history-a-snapshot-through-hello-kitty.

PeakD. ‘Maneki Neko - The Lucky Beckoning Cat’. Accessed 17 February 2025. https://peakd.com/hive-140084/@dbooster/maneki-neko-the-lucky-beckoning-cat.

The Art Institute of Chicago. ‘Utagawa Hiroshige’, 1797. https://www.artic.edu/artists/34946/utagawa-hiroshige.

Tipton, Elise K. ‘Rectifying Public Morals in Interwar Japan’. Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies 5, no. 2 (1 January 2001): 133–48. https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1063.