AltJapan

Yo Nukes

Japan loves mascots. There are enough of them out there to fill a book and many, many posts on the subject. Super-cute mascots aren't intended to be childish or condescending here; Japan's animistic, polytheistic roots seem to have given the nation the mutant power to transform nearly any object or concept, no matter how arcane, into a happy little mascot.

Japan's nuclear industry is no exception. Many of the nuclear facilities it built throughout the nation came complete with little museums -- basically, PR facilities -- to help educate and reassure locals as to the safety of the nuclear plants sitting in the middle of their neighborhoods. Looking back from the devastation of March 2011, a lot of these seem almost gross, but it's important to remember there was no special effort to brainwash anyone or specifically target children with these super-cute characters. EVERYTHING has a mascot in Japan. Even the tsunami waves themselves. 

That said, I don't think anyone has actually gone to the effort of trying to collect these nuclear-related mascots in one place. Below are a sampling I found in a scan of the net. I am sure there are many more out there - post 'em if you find 'em!

First up: the notorious Pluto-kun ("Mr. Pluto"), one of the mascots used by the Japan Atomic Energy Association to calm fears about nuclear power at their Atom World PR facility. Which has been shut down to the public since March of 2011 (go figure.)

This looks like an R. Crumb character, but it's Tomarin, the mascot of the Hokkaido Electric Power Company's Nuclear PR center.

"Welcome to Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant!"

"Welcome to the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Museum!" He's still hanging out with the kids post-3/11, at least as recently as March 2012.

1W-kun ("Mr. One-Watt"), the mascot of Kinki University's teaching reactor.

Uranboya ("Uranium Boy"), another of the JAEA's helpful PR flacks.

Miss Sodium, another mascot used at Atom World to explain the workings of sodium-cooled fast reactors.

Rikki, mascot of the Shimane Nuclear Plant PR facility. (Free admission, people!)

"Super Atomic-kun," with a wave motif that looks quite unfortunate, in hindsight...

It also goes without saying that anti-nuclear protesters have created their own mascots as well. This is Datsuge-Raion, or "The Get-Out-of-Nuclear-Power Lion." He even has his own theme song. 

Kawaiisrael

From the Israel in Japan Facebook page, a contest that proves yet again that no concept can escape being made into a yuru-kyara mascot.

This time, the mission is to design a supercute character to represent the Israeli Embassy of Tokyo. As always, the point is to ride that fine line between silly and just plain lame - and don't forget to toss in as many local foods, customs, and tourist attractions as possible. Meet some of the top contenders below.

Lions and menorahs:

A positively proctological kebab:

Falaffels in a pod:

Hummus-man?

Meshugana for moé:

Wacky Wailing Wall!

Cats? Why not.

My personal favorite:

MBA? CPA? LOL!

There are many words one can use to describe tax law. "Adorable" is generally not one of them.

Hot on the heels of the totally kawaii catastrophic insurance coverage we used for our house came this pamphlet from the Japanese government. Entitled "Tax System for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," it describes tax laws applying to small companies such as the one Hiroko and I run. 

Featuring the adventures of Professor Kyoko and the "Taxhound," it consists of 78 pages of the dense, unreadable text you'd expect from a pamphlet like this. The only difference between it and those of other countries being the supercute girls! girls! girls! popping up amidst the charts and tables of numbers. Here, see for yourself! It's avaialble for free download from the METI website.

You know what else is available for free download? The totally squeezable huggable lovable OMG-I-could-just-eat-you-up Accounting for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises! Featuring an even further infantalized mascot character and, of course, her mutant turtle sidekick. 

As always, these aren't intended for tax-crazed toddlers. They're distributed to small business owners throughout Japan. Truth be told, these are less "kawaii" than they are "moé," but I think one thing is clear: nothing is safe from the siren song of the supercute in Japan.

Tsunami Characters

Japan has a long history of using cute mascot characters in situations that can surprise Westerners. In fact, quite often the more terrifying or distressing a situation, the cuter the visual description of it becomes on official posters here.

This may sound counterintuitive or even a little condescending at first, but when you start thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. Whereas, say, photos of damage or devastation would probably cause people to avert their eyes, this sort of presentation lures people into actually reading the sign -- particularly children, as tsunami education needs to start early.

Of course, there's no way to know how many lives public-service campaigns like this saved in the 3-11 earthquake and tsunami. But similar to the ancient stone tsunami-warning markers found dotting the countryside, these cute characters are another example that natural disasters are never far from the minds of people in Japan.

 

A 2007 poster for tsunami evacuation drills in the Sagami Bay area of Kanagawa prefecture (southwest of Tokyo).

 

A sign spotted in a Shizuoka suburb, explaining how trees can act as wind and wave breaks.

  

We found this one on a hiking trail in Iwate prefecture several years back. He marks the portions of the trail that pass by the ocean, reminding hikers to beware of tsunami in the event of an earthquake.

 

Tsunami-man is one of a series of regional mascots from Shikoku's Kochi prefecture used to teach children about the dangers of earthquakes and tsunami. You can see him in action in a comic strip here.

These are just the tip of the iceberg and I am sure there are many more out there. If you know of any, feel free to link to them in the comments.

I.N.K.ling

So I wussed out on my threat/promise to take a swim in Zushi's chilly waters yesterday. But with things like this inhabiting the nearby storm drains, can you really blame me?

"Stop or we'll cute!"

Meet Seyano Ajisai and Seyano Keyaki, the newest recruits to the ranks of Japan's many regional police department mascots. Unlike the usual vaguely-defined yuru kyara style working characters, they look like they stepped right out of the pages of a manga. But these aren't a joke, aren't some kind of dojinshi mash-up. They are 100% official designs of the suburban Yokohama based Seya Police Department, freshly unveiled just days ago. That makes them (in the words of a Seya P.D. spokesman) "the most cutting-edge police mascots in Japan." 

The comment echoes one by Takashi Murakami several years ago about mascots "representing the cutting edge of kawaii culture in Japan." Given the troubles the anime, manga, music, and film industries are suffering at the moment, one could make a strong case that mascot culture is the "healthiest" (or at least most dynamic) of Japan's subcultures right now. And nowhere is that more evident than in the merging of status-quo mascot design with moé, that fetishization of girlish naiveté and effeminate men.

You can read an article I wrote on the subject over at CNNgo, but the fact that a police department chose these particular designs for outreach purposes is yet another example of just how deeply moé has entrenched itself in the mainstream of Japanese society. While there's a joke to be made here about the people who are supposed to be protecting children using "lolicon" as a community-building tool, this isn't really about Seya's aesthetic choices. Mascots are like fuzzy little mirrors reflecting the tastes of the day -- and love it or hate it, moé, is here to stay.

Der Kawaii Commodore's in Town (Uh Oh)

In 1853, a fleet of four steam-powered frigates under the command of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry paid an unannounced visit to Edo bay. Dubbed the kurofune (literally, "black ships") by the astounded citizens of Japan, a combination of Perry's savvy negotiating tactics plus the veiled threat of a bombardment eventually convinced the Tokugawa Shogunate to open the country to foreign trade after two centuries of near total isolation.

Heavy stuff. And this being Japan, that means there's absolutely no reason not to commission a super-kawaii mascot commemorating the event! Meet "Tanemaru," the world's most cuddly cheerleader for the concept of gunboat diplomacy. Unveiled as part of the City of Yokohama's 150th anniversary celebration of the official opening of the port, it's an ambulatory ship with a seedling sprouting from its bridge. Okay, so it's celebrating the RESULT, not what led up to the opening. But still.

After writing Hello, Please! it takes a lot to surprise me when it comes to mascots like Tanemaru. I suppose he isn't any conceptually stranger than Hikonyan, or the even more inexplicable Hello Kitty Black Ship. ("Open your frickin' harbor or we'll bombard you with hugs!") But there's something about the mash-up of nineteenth century imperialism and super-cute mascot culture that would undoubtedly have set the head of an old salt like Commodore Perry spinning. Ponder that the next time you take a ride in one of Yokohama's Tanemaru-festooned taxis.

Hell in a Cell

Translation: "Let me out, oh God please, please let me out, I promise to be good...."

Just kidding. It's a "do not enter" sign. Intentional or not, putting it BEHIND the fence was a nice touch. Cute portrayals of helmeted workers are a common sight on signs placed around construction sites in Japan. Why pay a guy to stand around when you can have a "working character" do it with even better effect?

No Dumping

I get the question nearly every time a pal visits me here: "Hey! I heard people in Japan put out brand-new TVs and stereos out with their trash! What day is that...?" I almost hate to dispel the visions of free Blu-ray players dancing in their heads.

In spite of what you may have read about garbage day in Japan ("How to Get Free Electronic Goods in Japan," BoingBoing, February 17th), the streets of Tokyo are not lined with mint-condition electronic gear ripe for the taking. The binge-and-purge cycle of constantly upgrading one's appliances is a relic of the "bubble era." It went out of style in the mid-90s, shortly after Japan went into recession. These days, people tend to make the most of what they have. Nobody dumps electronics on the street to impress the neighbors. Quite the opposite. They do it because they're too lazy and cheap to pay for it to get hauled away. Anything with actual value gets sold to a local recycling shop. The stuff left sitting on the curb is inevitably junk.

This being Japan, if you have a societal problem, you have super-kawaii signs reminding people not to do it. The pictures above, taken within walking distance of my home, represent just a tiny fraction of the "no dumping" signs posted throughout the country. It's a major problem here.

A Whale of A Time

Whether you think it's just more meat or a crime against nature, you have to admit that Japanese whaling has become a hot-button issue around the world. So you have to give Japan's International Fishing Show 2009 credit for throwing a little kawaii in the face of the controversy: their posters feature a super-cute pair of whales with fishing rods! Chutzpah or cluelessness? You make the call. 

Admittedly, the show is aimed at sport rather than commercial fishermen. But it's still amusing, especially in light of their chairman's remarks about "the increasing importance of communication that overcomes cultural barriers."