As a Japanese schoolgirl in the 1970s, Kazumi Kaminaga had never seen anything as cute as Hello Kitty when she first laid eyes on the moon-faced, mouthless character in a shop.

"There were hardly any 'kawaii' products when I was in elementary school," said the now-51-year-old mother, using the Japanese word for "cute".

"It was such a shock. ... She was really kawaii."

With Kitty set to celebrate her 40th birthday on Saturday, Kaminaga has become a lifelong collector of a brand phenomenon that appears on more than 50,000 products - including a dress made for pop diva Lady Gaga - and spawned an estimated multibillion-dollar industry.

The character is licensed to appear on products as diverse as clothing, electronics and aircraft - sex toys are a myth - in 130 countries and territories.

First released in 1974 and appearing on a coin purse the following year, Kitty is far from just kids stuff these days. Its creator, Sanrio, said Kittymania is actually driven by adults like Kaminaga, who spoke to AFP as she shopped for a birthday card for her boss - a man.

"There was a trend born in Japan and other Asian countries in the 1990s that it wasn't childish for adults to have products with these characters' images," Sanrio spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu said.

"It was a major change in values and it also happened in America and Europe in the 2000s."

Kitty's enduring legacy is her appeal to all ages, but particularly grown-ups, despite her childlike pink bow and a registered height of "five apples".

"Hello Kitty gives adults some license to play, to express a part of themselves that other parts of their lives may not allow," said Christine Yano, a US-based anthropologist specializing in the character.

Western attitudes toward cute culture also changed partly because Japanese manga and anime's popularity made things from Japan "more acceptable and even desirable," said Yano, author of Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek Across the Pacific.

Over the years, Kitty has shaken up her look with tinges of punk, while linking with fashionable brands has helped keep up the appeal with some "edginess", Yano added.

Kitty was also a product of her time, appearing three decades after Japan's bitter defeat in World War II, when the previously devastated country was firmly back on its feet and children had pocket money to spend.

Kitty got a boyfriend, Dear Daniel, when Japanese teen celebrities started openly dating, and a Persian cat named Charmmy Kitty when pets became all the rage among Japanese women.

'Not a cat'

Despite her years, the timeless character, who insists "you can never have too many friends", is still exploring new frontiers.

Kitty went on a space mission this year aboard a satellite and Sanrio is launching a line of Kitty products for men next year, possibly before Valentine's Day.

"That's a good idea - I must buy them" for my husband and son, said Niroko Hoshino, a 56-year-old office worker whose fingernails are adorned with tiny Kitty faces, although she only became a collector as an adult.

"I have all sorts of Kitty goods - products for the kitchen and washroom, underwear, handbags ... I can't even say how many I have."

But just like some real adults, Kitty has suffered something of an identity crisis recently following word that she is actually not a cat, but a girl.

The shock revelation in August went viral on the Internet and shocked many Kitty fans who thought she must surely be feline.

The surprise came to light when Yano asked Sanrio to fact-check captions for an October Los Angeles exhibition that she is curating to mark the character's 40th anniversary.

But Sanrio insists it has been saying all along that she was a cheerful little girl born in a London suburb - despite her whiskers and pointy ears.

"Kitty was making telephone calls and had a goldfish friend from the very beginning," Sanrio's Tohmatsu said.

(China Daily 10/30/2014 page10)