San-X (サンエックス, San Ekkusu) is a Japanese stationery company known for creating and marketing cute characters such as Tarepanda, Rilakkuma, and Sumikko Gurashi. The characters are usually anthropomorphic representations of animals or inanimate objects. Each character has its own quirky traits; for example, Momobuta is a pig with a head shaped like a peach, who enjoys karaoke and painting her nails. San-X head designer and creator of Tarepanda, Hikaru Suemasa said in 1999: "It's not just being cute. There is something different - a relaxed look, powerless".^[1]

San-X characters can be found on stationery sets and pencils, as collectibles, keychains and stuffed toys. They are sold as blind boxes, gashapon and in UFO catchers and other prize machines in Japan's arcades. There are also anime series, video games and books featuring the characters.

San-X was founded in April 1932 as a privately owned business under the name Chida Handler. In October 1942, Chida Handler became a limited company. Chida Handler's name was changed to San-X in May 1973.^[2] The name San-X derives from an earlier logo which was a row of three X characters. San is three in Japanese. The X in the logo is often illustrated as an anthropomorphic four leafed clover.

Before Tarepanda became a hit, most of San-X products did not rely on characters. They continue to sell products like stationery with scenic shots and illustrations. In 1987 San-X created Pinny-Mu, their biggest character up until then. Tarepanda was created by Hikaru Suemasa (ja:末政ひかる) in 1995 and went on to be such a success that in 1998 San-X turned into a full-scale character development and licensing company. In 1999 Kogepan was created, which was adapted to an anime series in 2001. Mamegoma was created in 2005 and adapted to an anime series in 2009. In 2003, Aki Kondo created Rilakkuma, San-X's most successful character to date.

In 2010 The New York Times described San-X as a smaller, nimbler company, with potential to surpass the Sanrio corporation. The San-X characters Tarepanda and Rilakkuma were described as "huge hits in Japan" that were rising in the Character Databank character popularity charts while Sanrio's Hello Kitty character slumped in popularity, especially in Japan.^[3]

Sumikko Gurashi was created by Yuri Yokomizo in 2012, and an animated theatrical feature film with the characters was released in 2019.^[4] Also in 2019, a stop motion animated series featuring Rilakkuma, called Rilakkuma and Kaoru, began streaming on Netflix.^[5] As of 2019 San-X had about 35 designers, creating original characters and making designs for stationery and other merchandise.^[6]