Perhaps it should be no surprise that the country that revers all things Hello Kitty should also have a soft spot for Beatrix Potter. Still, to anyone whose interest in Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggywinkle and Jemima Puddle-Duck ended with infants school, Japan’s enduring fascination is an unusual one. Beatrix Potter isn’t just big there: she is a national obsession. We may use her illustrations to decorate Wedgwood china, but they have them everywhere from ATM cash machines to business stationery and mayonnaise jars.

Britain’s own Potter industry is set to receive a boost with the release of Christopher Noonan’s film, but even then, it is unlikely to approach Asian levels of fandom. Among the Potter-related attractions in Tokyo are a chain of Peter Rabbit juice bars and, in a children’s zoo, a perfect recreation of her Lake District farmhouse, Hill Top. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published in Japan in 1971, was one of the first English books to become available in translation there. It was on the national curriculum for years, and is still used as a teaching aid. You can only surmise that tourists arriving at Heathrow must feel a little cheated that we are not all scurrying around in blue jackets and bonnets, baking pies in patty-pans.

So what is it that appeals to the Japanese? Richard Foster, general manager of The World of Beatrix Potter at Bowness on Windermere, and chairman of the English Lake District Japan Forum, believes that it is a picture of bygone Britain, embodied in her comforting tales of helpful mice and sagacious owls. “Peter Rabbit is seen as a quintessential British character,” he says. “He represents a gentle, nostalgic view of this country that continues to attract tourists.”

David Buckley, president of Copyrights Asia Ltd, the company that handles all Japanese copyrights for Beatrix Potter, agrees. “Peter Rabbit is seen as trustworthy, stable and unthreatening,” he says. “There is a natural affinity between the Japanese and Beatrix Potter. Her books represent a wholesome Englishness that is highly prized.”

This is a long way from some modern British interpretations, which claim that they are far darker than tales about fluffy bunnies have any right to be. Some critics even choose to read The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin as a parable about the dangers of masturbation - surely an idea that would horrify the Edwardian author.

Readers abroad, though, take a far more literal approach, particularly in Japan, the biggest market for Beatrix Potter in the world. According to Visit Britain, the North West is the second most popular destination for Japanese tourists after London, while the National Trust estimates that Hill Top alone attracts nearly 20,000 visitors from Japan every summer - almost a third of the total.

Tourism has fallen in recent years as a result of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, but the release of Miss Potter is set to bring a huge influx of Peter Rabbit fans in search of picture book Britain. So if you visit Potter country in 2007, don’t be surprised to find it besieged by Japanese tourists clutching well-thumbed copies of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.



The irony being, of course, that to many British visitors, squirrels saying things such as, “If you’ll tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a groat,” might as well be speaking Japanese.

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