Meet the Japanese Man Who Owns The World’s Largest Hello Kitty Collection

June 26, 2017

With more than 5,000 Hello Kitty memorabilia Masao Gunji holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of its kind.

In the video below, Gunji, who resides in Yotsukaido, Chiba, Japan, explains that he began collecting Hello Kitty products over the past 35 years, everything from plushies, bento boxes, towels, stationary items, motorcycle helmets, clocks and even kitchenware, according to the Guinness World Records.

By 2016, he had amassed a jaw-dropping 5,169 items displayed in his pink home complete with Hello Kitty wallpaper, beating the previous record holder by 650.

“The reason I like Hello Kitty is because of her expression,” Gunji told the Guinness World Records in the video. “For some reason, when I’m sad, she looks a little bit sad as well, and when I am happy she looks happy.”

“My neighbors enjoy visiting this house,” he said of his Hello Kitty house. “I can see they enjoy relaxing here.”

Gunji could not have completed his collection without his wife, who helped buy Hello Kitty goods whenever she could.

“Hello Kitty has always cheered me up when I was unhappy,” Gunji added.

This extraordinary feat beat previous record holder Asako Kanda, also from Japan, who had set the record at 4,519 Hello Kitty goods.

h/t: Kotaku

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