Suica Penguin x Haneda 2026 Goods by Chiharu Sakazaki Go on Sale May 22

Original source: PR TIMES

Japan Airport Terminal, which operates Haneda Airport, announced on May 22 that a new Haneda-exclusive penguin goods series by Chiharu Sakazaki had gone on sale from noon that day.

The goods are available through the official online store HANEDA Shopping and at Tokyo’s Tokyo on the 3rd floor of Haneda Airport Terminal 2. The theme is “Sky, Travel, Japan.” After the news spread, people on X quickly began joking that the Suica Penguin had “changed jobs.”

Sakazaki, the original creator of the Suica Penguin, drew the new designs around sky, travel, and Japan. One design shows a “Sky Penguin” wearing a scarf in Japanese flag colors and spreading its wings toward the sky. Another line, “Penguin JAPAN,” mixes the penguin with traditional crafts and lucky objects from around Japan.

The four goods are a “Sky Penguin” tote bag for 3,980 yen, a “Penguin JAPAN” mug for 3,080 yen, a “playing airplane” handkerchief for 1,650 yen, and a “fish shop” acrylic keychain for 1,408 yen. The keychain has 12 designs, the handkerchief has 18, and the mug has two.

HANEDA Shopping opened online sales at noon on May 22. Tokyo’s Tokyo is located in the Marketplace on the 3rd floor of Terminal 2 and is open from 10:00 to 17:00. It carries only some of the items.

Once the announcement circulated, one X user wrote that the Suica Penguin seemed to have found a new job. The post spread fast.

Replies turned the character into an office worker changing lanes: from rail to air, finally leaving a fixed track, conquering land, sea, and sky, and getting a career upgrade.

That habit of placing human moods onto penguins also runs through the recent Nihilistic Penguin meme: the bird says nothing, and people quickly fill in the feeling.

JR East announced last November that the Suica Penguin would step down as the Suica mascot at the end of fiscal 2026, meaning the end of March 2027. At the time, many fans signed Change.org petitions asking the company not to retire the character or “lay it off”; the campaign passed 18,000 signatures.

This Haneda series made some fans feel as if the character had moved into aviation for a second life.

JR East, Haneda Airport, and Sakazaki herself have not described this collaboration as an official continuation of the Suica Penguin. Sakazaki is known for penguin characters that do not point to one specific penguin species. The “career change” framing came from fans.

Chiharu Sakazaki was born in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in 1967. She graduated from the Design Department of Tokyo University of the Arts in 1991 and has worked as a freelance illustrator and picture-book artist since 1998. Her character designs include JR East’s Suica Penguin, Chiba Prefecture’s Chiba-kun, Daihatsu’s Kaku Kaku Shika Jika, and Yamato Holdings’ black and white cats.

In 2024, Sakazaki opened Penguin Museum, a permanent exhibition of original art, inside Wadaya Besso in Ureshino Onsen, Saga Prefecture. It became another small pilgrimage spot for penguin fans.

Full product details are on HANEDA Shopping x Chiharu Sakazaki Haneda-exclusive penguin goods.