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| Japan goes barking mad over chihuahua
TOKYO, Aug 6 (AFP) - Japan has gone barking mad over a big-eyed chihuahua named Que-chan and if sales of the photo collection are any indication, its upcoming CD is likely to be a big hit. After appearing in a television commercial for consumer loan firm Aiful Corp. last August, Que-chan (pronounced KOO-chan), has been the subject of a photo collection that has sold 80,000, a children's picture book, and over 200 related products. BizVantage – A Net clipping service that learns what you need: for business, investment or technology. Now the cute canine features on the front of Aiful's credit card dressed in a black suit and tie and will even "sing" on a CD set for release later this month, a spokeswoman said. "There have been other star pets before, but the Que-chan boom is the first time one has spawned a social phenomenon," said Japan Pet Model Association spokeswoman Yumiko Kotani. The craze is the latest to hit Japan, where cuteness is an obsession and the Hello Kitty cartoon character, Pokemon's Pikachu and Tama-chan, a stray wild seal, have all enjoyed huge popularity. In the commercial, a father waiting for his salary bonus locks eyes with the cute chihuahua in a pet store after entreaties from his daughter, then imagines he is running down the beach with the pup in his arms. Aiful spokesman Hiroyuki Yamanaka said the advertisement helped the company take the largest share of all new consumer loans recently. "Of course, we also carried out other promotions, but the commercial was one of the factors in our success," he said. The two-disc CD set will feature 24 songs, set to "relaxing" and "exercising" themes, including one with "the raw voice of Que-chan", Kotani said. Que-chan's real life owner is a twenty-something office lady who also convinced her father to splurge on a pet, she said. "Que-chan had been left behind unsold at the pet store for a long time," she said. "The woman bought the dog at a discount." rn/ja/bro Lifestyle-Japan-animals-dog
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