Do you know that many of our most popular cartoon and movie characters come from Japan? You probably know some of them, and you may never hear of others. But they are all very popular in Japan.

In Japan, Astroboy is very famous. He was created as a comic book character in 1951, and was the first animated（动画的）cartoon on Japanese television in 1963. Pikachu is the star of the popular Pokemon cartoon series. Everybody in Japan knows Doraemon. The blue cat with a magic pocket is popular all over Japan. His face is seen everywhere, on candy wrappers（糖纸）, on pencil boxes and even on stamps. He first appeared in a comic book in 1969, and he had been in TV shows and movies as well. The movie My Neighbor Totoro was made in 1988. It is one of the most popular animated films made by the Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki. There are shops in Japan selling Totoro merchandise（商品）. You can buy all things about Totoro books, lunchboxes, games and so on.