I’m sure you’re all aware of the Japanese mascot, Chiitan, who has been stuck in the spotlight of various controversial topics as of recent. The self-described “0-year-old fairy baby” has been gaining a lot of attention on social media for the past year and in the video down below you can kind of understand why.
Earlier this year the mayor of Susaki City in Kochi Prefecture officially requested that the mascot “suspend activities” because of Chiitan’s appearance resembled the city’s official mascot, a fellow otter named Shinjo-kun, who happened to be designed by the same person.
Susaki City in Kochi Prefecture once embraced Chiitan as their unofficial “Tourism Ambassador” but this status has since been removed due to complaints from residents over the mascot’s bizarre behavior. According to various feedback from the citizens of the city, Chiitan was tainting the image of the city and was a bad influence on Shinjo-kun, the official mascot.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqjpkdOFe2s/
Even John Oliver’s late-night talk show Last Week Tonight spoke about Chiitan and introduced the “0-year-old fairy baby” to an even wider audience, which resulted in Chiitan gaining more followers and engagement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHz3gaTNr0U
After John Oliver’s segment on American television, the talk show host started a beef with the mascot after he sent over his own mascot named Chiijohn, to steal Chiitan’s former best friend, and official Susaki mascot, Shinjo-kun.
Goodnight from Chiijohn and his new best friend, @shinjokun_info! pic.twitter.com/xim1h0qlrv
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) April 22, 2019
Chiitan engaged with this friendly banter and challenged the mascot Chiijohn to “explode through a table” in a number of new videos.
Sadly, this abruptly ended with bad news.
As of May 14th, 2019, the popular mascot’s official Twitter accounts are currently suspended and they have since opened a petition to help bring Chiitan back to Twitter. As of press time, it has received over 3,000 signatures.
Other Chiitan accounts in different languages, including @ittocanlove (Korean), @TiquitaFutebol (Brazilian), @japanesemascot (Arabic), @Chiitan_Turkiye (Turkish) as well as the ACTUAL otter Chiitan’s account (@love_otter_love) have all been suspended.
Source: Soranews
