Megumi

"J-List has been around for an awfully long time, 20 years as of last October, making us two years older than Google. I started the company because I knew firsthand how powerful the worldwide obsession with Japan was, and that a shop based at the source -- inside Japan, which didn't exist at the time -- would be able to stock the most awesome products, from Cat Keyhole Lingerie to Wacky Toilet Candy and the only Succubus teacher ecchi toy you need. I started out listing products in a big Excel file called The Japan List and posting it to Usenet, which is where the J-List title came from. When it came time to design the mascot for our company, I asked the artist who did the Borderline Collection that we published (amazingly, it's still in print, part of the JAST Memorial Collection), and he created Megumi for us, who is totally not named after an ex-girlfriend of mine. We're super happy with the popularity of our mascot, with awesome Megumi fanart illustrations being made by talented artists." —Peter Payne