Arriving passengers peeking through plane windows will get their first greetings from the Japanese character painted on the boarding bridge. As they make their way to the luggage conveyor belt, they will see posters of Hello Kitty dragging a suitcase and riding on a miniature plane.
The rebranding rides on the hype of Osaka Expo 2025 and seeks to offer an alternative destination to the already congested ones, as Japan grapples with record numbers of tourists. The tourism boom — which hit a record-breaking 10.5 million in the first three months of 2025 — has given the world’s fourth-biggest economy a needed kick but also created headaches for locals.
“We hope to encourage more tourists, particularly those who typically visit high-traffic destinations like Tokyo and Kyoto, to travel to Oita instead,” a spokesman from Oita Prefectural Government’s tourism bureau told CNN on Thursday.
Oita is about one hour away from Osaka by plane and four hours by train.
Joining Hello Kitty at the Oita airport are friends like My Melody, Little Twin Stars and Pochacco. All are characters from Sanrio, the merchandising company behind her universe of cuteness.
Why Oita, though? Sanrio runs a theme park called Harmonyland in the prefecture. The company will be selling exclusive Hello Kitty key chains and T-shirts at the domestic terminal.
“In addition to attracting visitors not only from major metropolitan areas such as the Tokyo and Kansai regions but also by highlighting the unique appeal of Oita Prefecture and Kyushu such as hot springs, nature, and cuisine, we aim to leverage the global popularity of Japan’s Sanrio characters and their theme park,” Sanrio said in a statement.
“We are filled with the hope that this airport will become a bridge connecting countless smiles,” Sanrio Entertainment President Aya Komaki said during a recent launch, before touting Hello Kitty’s slogan written on a flag she holds in posters at the airport: “Hello from Oita to the world.”
Oita prefecture sits about 40 miles southeast of Fukuoka, Kyushu’s biggest city, and is home to some of Japan’s most sought-after onsen towns, like Beppu and Yufuin.
It’s more popular among local tourists than international visitors, though. Almost 80% of 530,033 visitors recorded last month were domestic travelers.
The airport operates mainly domestic flights, but also runs a few international routes to Seoul in South Korea and Taipei in Taiwan.
It is not the first airport to name itself after the nation’s much-worshipped cartoon characters, with Japanese manga and anime being among the country’s most influential exports.
In the central city of Tottori, officials renamed its airport Tottori Sand Dunes Conan Airport in 2015 to pay tribute to “Case Closed,” a Japanese manga and anime series about a child detective, Conan, who battles criminals with cool gadgets a la James Bond.
The neighboring Yonago Kitaro Airport also took its name from another manga and anime series, “GeGeGe no Kitaro,” which follows the quest of a young boy named Kitaro who fights off demons — or yokai in Japanese — to protect humans.
Other airports have also featured popular characters from Super Mario Bros and Pokemon in their tourism campaigns, even though they weren’t down for a name change.
The country with one of the most complex train networks in the world also puts its favorite characters on trains, including — guess who — Hello Kitty.
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