"I'm Fukuppy. Nice to meet you," the mascot says on the company's website.

The origins of Fukuppy, whose name combines the Japanese word for good fortune with letters from the English word "happy", are far more mundane.

He represents Fukushima Industries, a major manufacturer of industrial cooling systems based in Osaka that has offices throughout Japan and in many parts of Asia, including China and Singapore.

The firm is named after its founder – a certain Mr Fukushima – whose name shares the kanji characters used to write the name of the tsunami-hit prefecture hundreds of miles away in Japan's north-east.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/fukuppy-fukushima-mascot-japan-fridge-egg-name