The Suica mascot campaign is getting weird … and wonderful

A purple rabbit vying to become Suica’s next mascot has found itself roaming the Backrooms and starring in other memes on social media sites. | VIA @NIRUNIRU_JPG ON X

Sep 11, 2026

The character replacing Suica’s longtime penguin mascot was never going to have it easy. So it wasn’t too surprising when the initial online reaction to JR East’s three replacement candidates amounted to “Can’t we just keep the bird?”

The three hopefuls vying to represent the Suica smart card system are a cheerful squirrel, a purple rabbit … thing, and an orange creature carrying a tiny mole in a sling bag. Social media users responded to them with predictable knee-jerk outrage, where even professional designers derided the trio as bad “design objects.” Others held out hope that the current penguin mascot, who officially “retires” at the end of March 2027, might reconsider.

Then, the internet did what it increasingly does: It began siding with the weird one.

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