Hello Kitty has been blasted into space as Japan's government bid to mark the brand's 40th birthday.

 

The move is part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to promote the country's high-tech¹ industry and engineer economic growth.

 

He wants to combine the Hello Kitty figure with a mini satellite sent up to orbit the Earth and equipped with a digital message board.

 

The government is hoping to attract private companies into the air space business with the stunt²（噱头）.

 

The initiative calls on fans to come up with short messages that will be flashed on the board sitting above the four-centimetre cat, according to Kitty's creator Sanrio.

 

The white feline³（猫科动物） with a red bow sits by a window looking back at Earth, with the board displaying messages of up to 180 characters in English and Japanese.

 

"It can be a message that you want to send from space to someone special on Earth, or it can be something more general," a spokesman for Tokyo-based Sanrio said when they unveiled the initiative.

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