DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - In 1974, a designer at the Japanese company Sanrio created a whiskered, bow-wearing character named Hello Kitty. She had a white face, yellow nose and wore a blue jumper. The ...

So goes the unspoken mantra for Hello Kitty, one of global pop culture's most successful, most ubiquitous and, after three decades, most durable brands. For Japan's Sanrio Company Ltd., the worldwide ...