Shintaro Tsuji was the founder of Sanrio on August 10, 1960. In 1962 Tsuji expanded his enterprise from silk to rubber sandals with flowers printed on them. he began using existing cartoon characters for his merchandise. In the late 1960s the company started producing goods with the dog character Snoopy from the American comic strip Peanuts, after acquiring the Japanese licensing rights. In 1973 the company was officially established under the name Sanrio.  Tsuji, Sanrio’s founder, said that Yamanashi was part of the company’s former name, and has an alternative on’ Yomi reading of Sanir. The remaining o sound was added from the ou sound when people get excited. In late 2003 Sanrio won the “top brand with a conscience” award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles. The year 2010 was the 50th anniversary of Sanrio and in conjunction with this, Build-a-Bear workshop relisted limited edition stuffed toys of serval Sanrio characters including Hello Kitty, Chococat, Keroppi, and My Melody. In December 2011 Sanrio global acquired the rights to the Mr. Men character, which includes the subsidiary Mr. Men films Ltd, taking over.