Sanrio’s sales, which come from products as well as licensing, have reflected Kitty’s fading fortunes, shrinking for 10 consecutive years since 1999. The company’s overall sales in Japan fell 3.3 percent in the 12 months ending in March, Sanrio announced Friday, as both licensing and sales of good slumped. Hello Kitty fatigue is hitting Japan first, and hard, the company indicated.

自1999年以來，Sanrio公司通過Hello Kitty的獲利就一直在減少，包括直接的產品銷售，也包括公司授權的衍生商品。上周五Sanrio通報，在截止到3月的過去12個月里，公司在日本的總銷售額下降了3.3個百分點，也是包括直接的產品銷售和授權商品獲利，都大幅縮水。公司稱，Hello Kitty首先在日本出現了市場疲軟，而且是嚴重的疲軟。

But a one-time 28 percent jump in overseas sales — which Sanrio attributed to an accounting change, as well as several big contracts overseas tied to Hello Kitty’s 35th birthday celebrations — helped the company swing back to a net profit of 4.37 billion yen, in contrast to a loss of 1.50 billion yen the previous year.

不過，Hello Kitty的海外銷售額卻一度躍增了28%，使得Sanrio公司去年的凈利潤達到了43.7億日元，遠好過前年的15億日元的年度赤字。Sanrio公司認為，海外市場收益的暴增，主要原因有二，一是因為公司會計變更，二是因為去年是HelloKitty的35歲生日，這一慶典為公司贏得了很多海外的合同。

Sanrio now relies on overseas sales for 30 percent of its revenue, the company’s executive director, Susumu Emori, said Friday. But Mr. Emori was cautious about Sanrio’s future overseas prospects. “The last quarter was extraordinary, and we expect both sales and profit to fall this year,” he said.

執行部主任江守進（Susumu Emori）上周五指出，Sanrio現在有三成的收入要依靠海外市場，但是江守對Sanrio未來的海外市場前景表示擔憂?！斑^去一個季度的情況非常特殊，而我們預計今年的銷售額和利潤都會下降。”他說。