As Japan’s population continues to decline, we see more and more non-human characters pop out and come to life on a daily basis. The yuru-kyara boom which started less than a decade ago is now gaining momentum and dominating our everyday lives.

Yuru-kyara refers to a character or a mascot representative of a city or a prefecture, whose primary mission is to promote and vitalize its local culture and community. The name yuru-kyara is an abbreviation of two words: yurui which means “loose”, and kyara – character.

They are not meant to be lovable in the obvious way that facilitates money-making like other commercial figures (Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty, Snoopy etc) or anime characters — at least not when they were first introduced to the scene. This notion obviously is starting to change as we see more and more people see monetary value in the popularity of their promotional mascot characters, which is completely understandable.

For example, the very popular Kumamon mascot, Kumamoto’s yuru-kyara, is estimated to have generated around 640 million yen for the prefecture, and the sales of Kumamon merchandise totaled over 2,500 million yen in 2011.

While many of these characters are now becoming more like commercial figures, here I would like to introduce a lesser-known newbie, a native of Funabashi City, Chiba, and one which is not even approved or supported by the local government. This unofficial mascot called Funassyi is a “pear” fairy (the word for pear in Japanese is nashi) and looks like, well, a yellow pear with a face.

Despite its unofficial status and supposedly low publicity, Funassyi ranked 506th in the 2012 yuru-kyara “grand prix” popularity contest, out of 865 entries, which I guess isn’t too shabby. Now Funassyi is everywhere.

Incidentally, the winner of the 2012 Grand Prix was Barii-san, the simple but huggable character for Imabari in Ehime, and who jumped up from being second place last time. That’s him below.

Perhaps what makes Funassyi quite different from many others is that he is a talking mascot (and he talks a LOT) and appears to be a bit wacky as well. In this clip, his talk starts around 1:00 in (after a spot of dancing). Notice the enthusiastic waves and responses he gets from the crowd.

So why hasn’t Funabashi City adopted him? The answer is rather obvious – because they don’t want to. Instead, they recently announced their own “official” city mascot named Funaemon, who has no resemblance whatsoever to Funassyi.

This is Funaemon below, a more conservative and “human” yuru-kyara than the pear that is Funassyi. But which is the better mascot?

Will this move be enough to kick the unofficial yet one-and-only Funassyi out of the game? It seems like the odds are against the bureaucrats!

You might have thought that communism was safe from mascots but then you’d be wrong.

As shared by Matt Alt, the Japanese Communist Part has its own kawaii characters now, the so-called Proliferation Bureau, including a snazzy expensive-looking website.

The cast of eight mascots include Otento-sun, a sun who is fighting nuclear power, a purse called Gamagucchan who looks after tax reduction for ordinary households, Shiisa, an Okinawan lion dog (shisa) in charge of the issue of US bases in Okinawa, and Kakusan (“proliferation”), the leader.

The characters were used as part of the campaigning for the recent election and communist cosplay could be seen around Japan, with supporters dressed up as the characters. The idea is to make politics easier to understand and engage potential voters via digital media. (The recent elections also marked the first time that candidates were allowed to use the Internet in campaigning, indicating the things are gradually changing.) Before scoffing, we should remember that the turnout for the recent Upper House election fell several percent — so anything that raises the profile of genuine politics can’t be a bad thing.

The JCP is actually not a communist party in the true sense of the word. It does not aspire to implement communal ownership of property, nor has it done so for decades. Perhaps the most radical thing it might do if it ever gained a majority might be to re-nationalize a few things. After the war, having been heavily persecuted during the militarist era and then again by the US occupation authorities, it still tried to

It sent guerilla activists into the mountains to try to kick-start local subversion and rebellions against dam projects, but all was to no avail. It realized it was never going to get elected this way and official renounced armed struggle. It named its new identity “lovable communism” (aisaseru kyosanshugi).

Since the late Fifties it has never advocated subversive actions and its participation in the Anpo struggles in 1960 and 1970 were peaceful, as were its contribution to the anti-Vietnam War campaigns. However, for this it earned the ire of student radicals and other groups, especially for its failure to assist properly in the protests against Narita Airport and the controversial docking of a US submarine in Sasebo in 1968. A student group split from its youth movement in the late Fifties and thus began the New Left/Old Left dichotomy that essentially defined Japanese left-wing politics after the war.

Today the JCP is doing rather well. Its membership and subscription to the Akahata have risen in recent years with the fears of growing disparity in Japan since the Lost Decade began, fears which were then further exasperated by the worldwide recession that saw lots of temps laid off and soup kitchens in Tokyo. In the recent local government elections and Upper House election it made small but significant gains.

However, its protectionist policies might be baffling to some. For example, it is opposed to the increasing of consumption tax — surely the most universal and fair way to raise money for the burden of the aging population — and is against the TPP trade tariff agreement. (Actually, as a more learned commentator has pointed out, the inherent conservatism of all the parties that form the ostensible opposition to the ruling LDP, a bone fide conservative party, are all lacking in progressive, active policies.)

It should also be noted that the JCP apparently hired an ad agency to design the mascots, which hardly smacks of trying to pulling down the pillars of capitalism.

A little while ago we introduced a plucky newbie yuru-kyara mascot, Funassyi.

As a native of Funabashi in Chiba prefecture, he has been striving to revitalize the local culture and economy of the city. His name Funassyi is a combination word of the city name, Funabashi, and nashi (pear), which is the city’s local specialty. With a simple face that is often described as like child’s doodling, while he might not be the most kawaii of mascots, he has proven the old saying, action matters more than words –- and maybe appearances too.

He was recently voted No.1 in the Regional Mascot Contest, sponsored by Japan Department Stores Association.

In a different contest held last year, he ranked 506th out of 865 entries, which by the way wasn’t bad at all considering that he had no backing from the local government, unlike others — and he still does not hold any “official” title or approval from the city.

At this point, though, he probably does not want any support from public officials. I don’t think I’m the only one who sees more of the entrepreneur spirit in Funassyi, a kind of gutsiness that is definitely lacking in Japan’s “official” government. It’s no surprise, then, that Funassyi is now taking the lead in promoting his own community and bringing more people and money to his territory.

A new DVD titled “Funanomics” released at the end of July sounds very much like a parody of the supposedly more powerful Abenomics, yet Funassyi is all serious when it comes to getting to work.

As mentioned earlier, his character is best appreciated in action! Here’s the promotional video for the DVD.

In collaboration with Yahoo! Japan, Funassyi is now also running a charity marathon with the catch phrase “You can participate anytime 24 hours a day!”

At first the title might sound too confusing, as it suggests that the project will only run for 24 hours. But this is not the case. In fact, it might just be a satirical swipe against Nippon TV’s 24 hour telethon, which was aired last weekend over August 24th and 25th. Charity is certainly not something that should be forced on, nor should it be promoted as a business on national television, with (reportedly) millions of money spent on paying all the popular celebrities who made appearances on the show.

In his marathon, Funassyi runs ten centimeters for every yen that is donated. For every twenty-five kilometers he runs, a new version of the downloadable Funassyi wallpaper is added to the list of four wallpapers as gifts for the participants and donors.

The donations will be used to help people in the disaster-affected areas in various parts of Japan and to fund non-profit organizations that aim to develop society through the Internet.

Another year, another packed calendar of trends.

What were some of the main ones that caught our eye throughout the past twelve months?

Olympics

Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympic Games amidst great controversy, not least the continuing plight of Fukushima and Tohoku, PM Abe’s lies to the IOC that the situation was “under control”, an already ballooning budget, a non-Japanese architect handling the stadium design, and a rather bizarrely pronounced presentation by Christel Takigawa (whose bank balance — along with Dentsu’s — has done very nicely out of the Olympics, of course). Oh, and the man celebrating in the center of the picture above is Naoki Inose, the Governor of Tokyo who has lost his job over a financial scandal.

TV Drama is Big Again

After years of flagging TV ratings, the year scored some major television hits, not least NHK’s morning drama Amachan and Hanzawa Naoki.

Mascots (official and not so)

Everyone knows that Japan loves mascots. Now even the Communist Party has some cute characters. In particular, the year has seen the meteroic rise of “unofficial” pear mascot Funassyi from Funabashi in Chiba.

Ghibli strikes golds

Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises was a phenomenal hit in Japan, not least because it was announced as Miyao Miyazaki’s final anime film… but he has said this before. While the Ghibli/Miyazaki brand is formidable, the success of the movie is pretty incredible when you considered how uncommercial its subject matter (fight plane design!) is. The jury’s still out on its overseas reception, though.

Meanwhile, Takashi Murakami’s first anime feature film appeared to make zero impact.

Coffee

From the ascent of Starbucks to become the nation’s second largest chain — along the way opening a special traditional crafts branch in Meguro — to the fashion for convenience stores to offer their own drip coffee products, Japan has become one of the biggest consumers of coffee in the world. It also comes with its own generous portion of snobbery and hipster-dom, aided by a constantly renewing library of magazines and books about which espresso bar to go to in which area of Tokyo at which time.

Twitter Idiots

Bakattaa is a new word that was coined to describe one of the biggest online trends this year. It means the idiots (baka) who tweet pictures of themselves doing silly stuff. This has proved particularly problematic when the said fools are doing unhygienic stunts at their part-time jobs in restaurants and shops. This has led to bankruptcies and job losses, but the trend seems to show no sign of abating. The news today mentioned a man in Osaka who stupidly tweeted that he had stabbed someone. If you’re going to do a crime, don’t tell social media! The current generation in their teens and twenties are digital natives, and thus are still negotiating the new rules of caution and courtesy when tweeting a selfie. This is worldwide, of course. Remember the idiots who tweeted questions asking who Osama bin Laden was when he was killed? This took the same amount of typing time as they could have used to answer their own question if they had bothered to think before “sharing”.

UNESCO

Mt Fuji was given designation as a World Heritage site by UNESCO earlier in the year, while washoku (Japanese food) was also registered as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. However, this was soured by the continuing controversy over contamination in Fukushima and how it was affecting crops, as well as a food mislabeling scandal engulfing many noted restaurants and hotels.

Rise in Nationalism

Japan is going backwards. Prime Minister Abe is set on reversing history. He has passed a massively controversial state secrets bill, forged ahead with returning to nuclear power, purchased drones and a raft of other military equipment to “protect” contested territories, announced his intent to change the pacifist constitution, and now capped off the year by visiting the most sensitive place in Japan, Yasukuni Shrine. Good job, Mr Abe. A lesson in diplomacy for the world.

Coupled with the rise of regional right-wingers like Toru Hashimoto in Osaka and the unstoppable juggernaut that is Shintaro Ishihara (when will the octogenarian die?!), these are very, very troubling times for the country. Is this Cool Japan?

Japan is a country that seems to inspire more than its far share of stereotypes and myths. The overseas media is also complicit in perpetuating many of the images of Japan that make it seem weird, exotic and unfathomable. What irk the most are the ones that mold Japan as a nation of wackos with bizarre tastes in fashion, beauty, sex and entertainment. This isn’t just Japan; the western media continually likes to mock and belittle Asian countries. Would Psy have been such a hit if there hadn’t been a “weird dance” (actually originally very tongue-in-cheek)?

Here are five we particularly dislike and feel are wrong (in whole or in part), and also harmful and patronizing.

Mascot obsession

Yes, there are mascots — lots of them.

The Self-Defense Force has them, as does the police and even the Japanese Communist Party. Some days it feels like you can’t get away from mascot characters, on TV, advertising or merchandise. But that doesn’t mean people are stupid or only interested in something because of a mascot.

Mascot culture has been a big success story for regional tourism, hence why it has become something of a phenomenon in recent years. This is a fascinating social development and offers lessons in tourism. But also don’t confuse it with the idea that everyone in Japan walks around with mascot toys in their bags.

A nation of geeks

This links in with the mascot thing. Sure, manga and anime are popular here. hHwever, one of the biggest mistranslations and inaccurate use of language concerns the idea of “subcultures”. If we had a yen for every time we saw the words “anime subculture” in Japanese or English. More often than not, it’s being used incorrectly. What’s important here is how manga and anime are indeed mainstream — but in the sense that cartoons and comics are part of popular culture in America too. No one calls American geeks because of how successful “The Avengers” was, right? But the movie was seen by thousands of non-fans too.

What has changed in recent years is that certain types of manga and anime have risen in status — by which we mean subcultural content previously associated mostly with hardcore fans, especially science fiction. However, manga and anime itself is not a subculture. Quite the opposite: they are part of pop culture. So just because they are a visible element in Japan, it cannot be correlated solely with “geeky” culture.

The difference is that there is a whole wealth of anime and manga that can be enjoyed by adults too, not to mention the tens of thousands of titles specifically meant for older audiences (and we don’t mean “adult content” either). This is like how there are graphic novels and the likes of Robert Crumb in America, plus a quality Pixar animation is entertaining for all ages.

That’s what’s interesting; not that everyone in Japan is an otaku because they read comics even after the age of 18, but that there are comics that cater to predilections that go way beyond superheroes. If you look at the annual list of bestsellers, Japan has some of most varied reading tastes. What was the biggest box office hit recently in Japan? Yes, it was an anime. But it was Studio Ghibli’s “The Wind Rises”, which frankly is as mainstream as any Disney picture.

What makes us doubly angry is that “Cool Japan” is also getting it wrong, promoting a subculture — something for a select taste — as representative of all that’s good about Japan. And so we have embarrassments like AKB48 (not even a true example of genuine otaku culture anymore) performing at the ASEAN gala banquet.

Weird beauty

We have been guilty of helping with this myth ourselves. Sure, there are some bizarre beauty gadgets in Japan. But they are genuine skincare and health tools, no matter how odd the pictures sometimes look. From electric nose-lifters to face sliming mouthpieces, there is a whole pantheon of frankly visually alarming gadgets out there. But we actually think these are pretty amazing and not just to be scoffed at.

Either way, they are unusual items that are used by a minority of people. It’s not the case that everyone women is walking around with wacky mouthpieces jutting out of their jaws in a quest to retain their youthful beauty.

And at the end of the day, the beauty trends that should really be grabbing the headlines are the amazing quality of Japanese cosmetics and make-up, from Shiseido to Kanebo and shu uemura.

Sexual disfunction

The catalog of articles here would be notorious and too long to list, but the perennial claim is one of two extremes or even both at the same time: the Japanese are not interested in sex anymore, and/or they are super kinky and like to get their kicks at strange fetish clubs or through 2D characters.

There are extremes in every culture and we love how Japan, free of the notion of original sin and other moral hangups in the monotheistic world, is able to find a way for more unusual sexual customs to exist alongside the so-called mainstream. But they are just that: fringe elements. As healthy and often refreshing (if mind-boggling) as they are, the majority of men in Japan are not interested in pursuing anime girls or even Akihabara “idols”.

And we find it laughable this image that young people are not interested in sexual relations (any reporter who writes an article on this should go and visit a college campus or nightclub).

Japan is prohibitively expensive

Not so “wacky” this one but we still hate it always gets rolled out as a stereotype to explain how “opaque” and formiddable the lifestyle in Japan — especially Tokyo — is. Japan is not expensive. Sure, if you take the average apartment in America and Europe and compare it to a similar size in Tokyo, it will seem crazy. But no one lives like that. Things are compact in Japan (not small, compact) and you have to adjust your scale a little. In fact, it is far more affordable to live alone in Tokyo and go out for meals on a very regular basis than other cities.

What is expensive? Up-front fees for apartments, though this has improved recently. Some fruit and vegetables. Hostess clubs. Shinkansen bullet train tickets.

Everything else is pretty reasonable, not least because consumption tax is relatively low (it’s going up this spring, though) and prices have hardly changed in over ten years (the up side of the “Lost Decade”). You can shop at UNIQLO et al if you are on a budget and there is a host of great eating-out options for as little as ¥1,000-¥2,000 yen for a nice meal. Try getting an apartment for one, paying for daily transport costs, utility bills and going out half a dozen times a week in New York or a major European city… and then you’ll see what we mean.

And if don’t believe us, head over to Tokyo Cheapo for some tips on enjoying yourself in Japan on a budget.

Tears. Tantrums. And a yuru-kyara mascot character.

The Public Affairs Section/Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has produced a very original video promoting studying abroad in America. Noriko’s Study Abroad Story Episode 1 “I want to study in the U.S.” promises to be the first in a series of a drama episodes documenting the travails of a girl with her sights set on going overseas to learn more.

But rather than simply focussing on the “amazing experience” young Japanese men and women can have in the States, the approach is more domestic and realistic. It starts by showing the difficulties of persuading your father about the benefits of spending a year in the New World.

Here’s how they write it up:

Noriko is a Japanese college student who is thinking about studying abroad in the U.S. But when she tells her friends and family about her idea, their response is not quite what she was expecting…

But the biggest surprise is the yuru-kyara (mascot) who appears at the end to comfort the troubled girl and offer her some life lessons.

Noriko first announces her intention to study abroad in America to her parents but gets an obstinately negative response from her father. She then asks an older peer for help. But it’s not until TOM (“the U.S. Embassy Tokyo social media friendship ambassador”, a caption tell us) turns up that she gets some decent advice.

We don’t want to spoilt it too much. Take a look at the five-minute first episode for yourselves…

Funassyi just can’t be stopped. The pear (nashi) character that famously started off as an unofficial yuru-kyara mascot for Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture has become so popular that he now has his own cafe, the Funa Cafe.

He came out of nowhere in 2012, ranking a mere 506 out of 865 regional mascots from around Japan in one major “mascot contest”.

Funassyi is now on TV regularly, he has launched a veritable industry of DVDs, CDs, magazines, photo books, toys, games… everything.

Why is he so successful? Well, he can jump very high and pretend to play the guitar. And that’s about it as far as his special skills go. But perhaps it’s because he started off as an unofficial city mascot and people embraced the yellow underdog.

In September you can get a taste of Funassyi at the Funa Cafe in Shibuya Parco Part 1. Opening at The Guest Cafe & Diner on September 2nd and running for a limited time only until September 30th, customers can enjoy drinks, food, sweets and more, all with a Funassyi twist.

Take a look at these pictures and you’ll get an idea about how inventive the Funassyi-themed menu is!

The organizers have gone to a real effort here, creating a host of pear dishes and drinks, everything from pear juice soda to noodles. There will also be around 30 special items on sale, including aprons, mirrors, and more.

It’s actually the third themed cafe of its kind at the venue, following the wildly popular My Melody Cafe and Kiki and Lala Cafe which saw lines three hours long. It’s also a recreation of the Funa Cafe that appears in a picture book published by Parco.

It generated enough headlines when it opened and now it will surely get some more.

The Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku Kabukicho launched in late 2012 on a wave of publicity, not least for its enormous budget and advertising campaign featuring the eponymous robot vehicles been driven. Even if it wasn’t your thing, admit it — you were curious too, right?

And now the Robot Restaurant has its own mascot character, Roboko. (Strictly speaking, they have simply rebranded their robotic vehicles that star in the show as a mascot.)

Roboko is taking part in Japan’s “battle of the mascots”, last year won by Sanomaru. The robotic vixen is entry #55 in the corporate character competition in the Yuru-kyara Grand Prix, which is decided by public voting.

We’re not sure about Roboko’s chances against the likes of Kumamon and Funassyi, but you can’t knock them for trying. Last year there were 1,245 regional mascots and 335 corporate characters in the running. The top two regional mascots (the corporate ones get a separate ranking) had over 1 million votes each! (In other words, entering the competition is great for getting more exposure.) The 2013 Grand Prix’s top corporate mascot was Kosuke, the character for the Japanese Cooperative Insurance Association.

The restaurant has made over 10 of its “robots”, with the first ones on display in the entrance as they were apparently actually too big to fit in the final space. They reckon this makes Roboko perhaps the largest yuru-kyara in Japan!

As we wrote in a review last year, we found the Robot Restaurant a bit half-baked. There aren’t any genuine “robots” in the show, more like vehicles that that the dancers ride around on. And despite the risque outfits, it’s not really an adult show nor a regular idol event — something that sits oddly in between. And the staff at the reception were just like you’d expect from a venue located in Tokyo’s most notoriously sleazy district, i.e., pretty unwelcoming.

It also felt significant that around half the clientele were foreign (the restaurant ranked 16th on a recent list of most popular sightseeing spots in Japan for overseas visitors). Anyway, we don’t want to sound too snarky, we are sure that the show must have some appeal and we wish Roboko all the best in the competition. We would say “break a leg” but we doubt that’s physically possible for her.

Voting continues until October 20th, with the winners announced in November.

Yes, Japan’s most famous unofficial mascot, that lovable jumping yellow pear Funassyi now has a kid brother.

If you believed Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture already had enough mascots with just one, others thought otherwise. The unstoppable industry that is Funnassyi has been joined by a sibling, Funagoro.

Funagoro is half-pear, half-caterpillar. While he is a similar color to Funassyi, if a bit smaller, there is one major difference: he has a tail. And he can squirt pear juice out of it.

It’s not the first time that Funassyi’s family members have been mentioned but this is the first public appearance. Apparently the pear mascot has a whopping 274 brothers and sisters. Funagoro is the 56th brother, just in case you are counting.

What next for Funagoro? It depends on whether the world can cope with two Funassyis.

If you like unusual RC toys and if you like yuru-kyaru (Japanese mascots), then these two things are about to come crashing together in amazing style with this R/C Tractor Kumamon from Tamiya.

The tractor sees arguably Japan’s most popular mascot, the bear from Kumamoto Prefecture, driving a tractor while he goes about farming his region’s favorite offerings — water melons and tomatoes.

Stickers of Kumamon’s fruit crops decorate the chassis. The tractor also has two sizes of wheels so with some skill you can make Kumamon do wheelies. That’s something you don’t see every day.

We’ve seen some novel Japanese RC toys over the years, from cockroaches to cleaning mops and more, but Kumamon on a large tractor is certainly a new advance for the medium.

The R/C Tractor Kumamon is available in the full assembled and painted version with the controller on pre-order from JapanTrendShop.

Our previous favorite Kumamon toy had been the Soccer Robot Kumamon.

As the name suggests, it is a mini robot that can play football using an infrared controller. The robot is surprisingly agile and can move in eight different way.

It was surely just the next logical step: Funassyi the anime is here.

A series of animated shorts will premiere on March 30th on Nippon TV’s Sukkiri starring the yellow pear mascot.

Funassyi no funafunafuna hiyori (Funassyi’s Aimless Days) will be broadcast every weekday and feature Funassyi, as well as Guressyi (voiced by Lynn) and Nashigami-sama (voiced by Naoki Tatsuta). Funassyi will be voiced by, well, Funassyi.

The rise, rise and rise of Funassyi is the most incredible story of Japan’s regional mascots (yuru-kyara), not least because the pear character is such an oddity but because it is not the official mascot of Funabashi. It was created by people power alone and its subsequent popularity laughs in the face of the bureaucrats of the city in Chiba who wanted a tamer mascot.

The hyperactive Funassyi even recently made a lively appearance at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (imagine trying to be the interpreter for that press conference!), where it lent its support to Japan’s pacifist Constitution.

So far the Funassyi Industry includes manga, games, music releases, food, toys, clothes, and so much more. Now anime has been added to that long list, what can be next? Politics?!

Hello Kitty is no stranger to spin-offs and tie-ups. But this one is pretty innovative.

Sanrio’s iconic cat character has teamed up with Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Company for an exhibition in central Tokyo featuring Kitty-chan in a series of different cosplay outfits, each representing the area or city where Fukoku has a regional branch.

There are 62 illustrations of Hello Kitty in various regional garb.

This is very much old Japan meets new Japan. There are large noren traditional split curtains hanging over the entrance.

The exhibits themselves hang from the ceiling on plain white panels against a chic white floor with an abstract map of Japan. The space is designed by Naoya Iwama.

Each regional Hello Kitty character features a costume, props or other motifs representative of the respective area or city in Japan.

Here is Hello Kitty Hakodate with its famous squid.

Kagoshima and a black pig

Kobe

Maebashi and a daruma doll

Nagoya and its castle

Oita

North Osaka and takoyaki

South Osaka

Sapporo and skiing

The event is part of a general campaign by Fukoku using Hello Kitty as brand spokesperson. The insurance firm ran a poll contest to see which Hello Kitty regional character was the most popular. Surprisingly, the owl-themed Ikebukuro Hello Kitty came out top from the nearly 150,000 votes.

You can visit the show at the Fukoku Seimei Building (the Fukoku headquarters) at 2-2-2 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo.　The exhibition runs until June 30th.

Images via Animal Cafes, Design Boom and Fashion Headline

Everything you ever wanted to know and see about Funassyi in one place? Then head to the Parco Museum at Shibuya Parco Part 1 from April 24th for “Funassyi Fantasy World”, the first exhibition by the insanely popular unofficial Funabashi City mascot.

The hyperactive yellow pear now has its own TV anime series and came out as a pacifist in front of the world press. Shibuya Parco also previously hosted a temporary Funassyi cafe last year.

“Funassyi Fantasy World” promises archive videos, photographs, toys, merchandise and more.

There is an interactive augmented reality booth where you can have fun with the giant yellow fruit, though that might freak some visitors out. Are we the only ones who sometimes find the mad jumping antics a bit scary?

This being a Funnassyi event, the organizers’ eyes are on the coffers, so there are plenty of tie-in products and merchandise for sale too, including Funnassyi gacha gacha vending machines with magnets and badges.

The exhibition is resident at Parco Museum until May 17th, before touring to Sapporo Parco (May 22nd — June 8th).

Entry costs ¥500 for adults but is free for kids of elementary school age or younger.

It is sad to feature this kind of news at this time of year, but Reporters Without Borders have highlighted the fate of Japanese journalist Junpei (also Jumpei) Yasuda, missing in Syria. He is believed to be currently held captive by an unnamed group and facing execution.

RSF issued a statement on December 22nd:

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Japanese government to do everything possible to obtain the release of Jumpei Yasuda, a Japanese freelance journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in July and who is still being held hostage by an armed group.

According to the information obtained yesterday by RSF, those holding Yasuda have started a countdown for the payment of a ransom, failing which they are threatening to execute him or sell him to another terrorist group.

After freelance journalist Kenji Goto went missing after he tried to free Haruna Yukawa — both were beheaded by Islamic State (also known as ISIS or Da’esh) in January after random demands were not met — the latest twist in this saga is the capture of Yasuda in July this year, after he was trying to cover stories such as his friend Goto’s execution. It is not yet known who exactly holds Yasuda, though it is not thought to be IS.

The story actually first emerged in July, though the Japanese government and media maintained silence about the reports, ostensibly so as not to endanger Yasuda’s life further.

Yasuda has a long history of reporting from the Middle East and was even previously held hostage in Iraq.

Update: December 28th

RSF has now withdrawn its statement.

The release was not drafted according to normal procedure and was not sufficiently verified. It has therefore been withdrawn pending fuller information. We ask Yasuda’s family and friends, and the families of other hostages in Syria, to accept our apologies.

RSF was heavily criticized for potentially endangering Yasuda’s life further by publicizing his alleged capture.

The popular Q-pot Cafe is celebrating the start of 2016 — the year of the monkey in Japan — with some themed special items on their menu.

Available only from January 3rd to January 11th, the New Year menu includes chocolate banana cake, chocolate mousse, and more.

As always, the food and drink looks almost too good to spoil by eating!

Q-pot Cafe is the coffee shop spin-off created by the sweets-themed fashion brand Q-Pot, who specialize in creating girl-friendly confectionary-design items where you least expect them (mobile phone accessories, televisions, and so on).

Located in the backstreets of Omotesando, Q-Pot Cafe is a perfect microcosm of Harajuku kawaii fashion and Alice in Wonderland fantasies, installed with several different “secret” rooms that form cute rabbit holes for young female consumers to plunge into and escape the realities of Tokyo.

Every year, the zodiac animal inspires an array of cool products, store designs, and accessories — not least Nengajo (New Year Cards).

A lot happened in 2015, not least for Japan Trends, as we relaunched the website. We hope you like the new design.

What were the big trends of the year?

Political Renaissance

During the course of the year we saw political protest and civil disobedience on a new scale in Japan.

Some of it was light-hearted and took place online, such as the mockery of both the Olympic logo debacle and the stadium fiasco.

Other protests happened on the streets, such as the mass protests over the summer in response to the government’s state security bills. The media in particular went ape about the photogenic student activist group SEALDs.

We also saw quiet resistance to the introduction of the controversial My Number system.

Even the murders of two Japanese citizens by Islamic State in January did not quell this spirit: the horrors inspired more online satire.

However, the last laugh may be on the spoofers, though, since another Japanese journalist is allegedly now held in Syria.

Olympics in Crisis

So far the run-up to the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo is a disaster.

The launch of the cultural program has been tepid and the stadium was scrapped at the eleventh hour due to budget overruns. Worse still, the official logo was withdrawn after a plagiarism scandal.

Last week, Kengo Kuma’s stadium proposal was selected to replace Zaha Hadid’s, so perhaps things will finally start to proceed more smoothly.

On the other hand, we have seen some interesting trends in sports retail in Japan. Expect more of these over the next 3-4 years.

Drones

As covered last week, drones were one of the words of the year.

In April a drone was found on the Prime Minister’s official residence, having landed there a week before as a protest against nuclear power. Then in May a teenager got himself arrested for playing pranks with drones. Authorities want to clamp down on the recreational use of drones, while simultaneously exploiting their military and commercial potential.

Halloween

Halloween has developed into a massive cosplay event in Japan, starting in the weekends before All Hallows’ Eve itself and often involving costumes quite unrelated to the traditional ones.

This year’s Halloween was the biggest yet, with thousands turning Shibuya into an epic cosplay flash mob. 800 police were on hand to try to control the crowds and there was at least one arrest.

The costumes were fantastic.

Goodbye to Hotel Okura

The hipsters of the world wept as the Hotel Okura Tokyo closed it doors forever, despite a petition by Monocle to save it. Hotel Okura joined several vintage and much-loved pieces of the Tokyo cityscape that we lost this year, such as the original National Stadium and Meguro Gajoen, as well as the much-loved 82-year-old Daimaru Shinsaibashi in central Osaka, whose main building faces the wrecking ball after it closes on December 30th.

Star Wars

Ahead of the release of the new film, Star Wars fever in Japan went into hyperdrive, with lots of products, airplanes, and even artworks at a temple.

Tourism Boom

The massive increase in inbound tourism has led to a changing Shinjuku and Kabukicho, the latter fast approaching respectability and even kitsch status.

Retailers have reaped the benefits of Chinese wallets and now stores in Ginza and Shinjuku prominently display where customers from overseas can get their consumption tax rebate.

The tourist boom has also affected Narita Airport, which opened a funky-looking third terminal for low-cost carriers.

LGBT Rights

We are finally seeing some progress for LGBT rights in Japan, with two Tokyo wards — Shibuya and Setagaya — leading the way in recognizing same-sex couples. Other regional governments are following suit.

But in a blow to civil rights’ campaigners, the Supreme Court recently upheld the current law in Japan against married couples having separate surnames.

What does 2016 have in store for the Land of the Rising Sun? Keep an eye on Japan Trends to stay up to date.

American street artist DAAS has produced an awesome mural in Takatsuki City, a suburb of Osaka.

Part of the Takatsuki Art Expo 2015, the mural was first featured on Street Art News.

The mural is depicts haniwa, the terracotta clay figures that were installed with burial mounds in the Kofun Period in Japan. The main haniwa man is riding on a haniwa horse, combining two of the common types of haniwa in one vibrant wall painting. In the background is also a traditional house.

Here is DAAS working on the mural in November.

The mural can be found at the entrance to Takatsuki Center-Gai shopping arcade.

During the Kofun era, the Kansai region was already the center of power and the location for countless large and small burial mounds, especially around Asuka.

While primarily a commuter town between Osaka and Kyoto, Takatsuki is home to the keyhole-shaped Imashirozuka tumulus, one of the burial mounds that has been attracting a new generation of tourists recently. It famously contained 200 haniwa figures.

The unique-looking figures are not just archaeological artefacts. They are cute artworks in their own right.

As Japan deals with the massive increase in inbound tourism, a rather ugly side to the country’s popular culture is rearing its head. Part of this is due to pure ignorance and part of it is the ingrained belief among many — especially the movers and shakers of the entertainment world — that Japanese culture is unique and superior. While the so-called nihonjinron (“theory of the Japanese”) has thankfully lost a lot of its mainstream kudos in the past few decades, it still holds a lot of sway in mainstream minds.

So some Japanese people are astonished to learn that Japan is not the only place with four seasons and that people outside Japan can also use chopsticks.

We have seen a large increase in TV shows focussed on how non-Japanese view Japan, often edited or produced to show Japan in a positive light, and/or non-Japanese attempts to replicate Japan in a negative way.

The recent edition of TBS show “Bukkomi Japanese”, broadcast on December 29th, was a prime example, ostensibly showing “Fake Japan” from around the world.

One of the places it highlighted was a small Japanese restaurant in Edinburgh. It proceeded to intone in melodramatic narration how crazy this establishment was. The dishes they serve at Maki & Ramen Sushi Bar are not correct Japanese cuisine and the prices are far too expensive. For crying out loud, they serve ramen with whisky and other wacky local variants! They even serve Korean-made instant noodles to innocent paying customers!

There was just one problem. It wasn’t true.

Maki & Ramen Sushi Bar is a genuine ramen restaurant that also sells sushi — okay, that in itself is an unusual combination but there are countless types of wacky and innovative ramen and sushi restaurants in Japan too — and what was shown on the TV program was essentially done for entertainment purposes at the specific requests of the director.

The owner and head chef, Teddy Lee, found out how they had been presented and responded with posts on Facebook (since deleted). In the posts they explained how they were asked by the director to use instant noodles and a certain sauce — none of which they normally use. In fact, they say, their ramen dishes are cheaper than the standard because they are in a student area. The dishes like “breakfast ramen” and ingredients like whisky were all added at the behest of the Japanese TV crew in order to make what they were told was a comedic piece of entertainment with some local Scottish touches.

Little did they know that they were being used as part of a pseudo-documentary report about a “fake ramen” restaurant.

The issue here, though, is not just that television (Japanese or otherwise) exploits and deceives people. The issue is one of misunderstanding. Even if Maki & Ramen Sushi Bar had been serving whisky with ramen, that would not have been “wrong”.

When any culture and food travels, it changes. And so you get California roll or the curries that many British people happily consume thinking they hail from the Indian subcontinent.

This happens in Japan too, as any trip to a foreign cuisine restaurant will reveal. More often than not, the menu choice and ingredients are adapted to local tastes. It’s a natural and positive part of appropriation and diffusion. It should not be mocked as “fake” or inadequate by any party. This is the same kind of discrimination that creoles and pidgins faced to receive recognition as linguistically valid, not to mention hyphenated cultural identity in general.

Japanese TV already has a reputation for producing badly acted, cheap-looking drama, as well as wacky game shows and news coverage that frequently overlooks what’s most important. Now it is also gaining a reputation for racial discrimination that can only harm Japan’s global standing. Along with the surprisingly common use of quaintly racist motifs by advertising by major corporations like Toshiba and ANA, Japanese TV needs to grow up fast in terms of the way it views non-Japanese culture, or otherwise visitors to Tokyo are going to get a shock in 2020 if they happen to turn on the television in their hotel room.

The final weekend saw Comiket take over the Odaiba bay area, as thousands of cosplayers, dojinshi readers, and manga fans descended on Big Sight for the three-day festival.

Japan’s video game, anime and manga franchises also use Comiket as an opportunity to promote merchandise and upcoming releases.

As such a special Puella Magi Madoka Magica vending machine was installed outside a Lawson convenience store in Odaiba, selling ¥1,000 cans of coffee. (Lawson has an established history of anime franchise tie-ups, such as Evangelion and K-On!.)

But what could be worth almost ten times the market price for a can of coffee?

Whatever it was, it attracted plenty of crowds of fans keen to purchase the drinks.

Once purchased, out popped a special cylindrical pack, but open it up and all you have bought is actually just an ordinary canned coffee with a Madoka Magica pin badge. Since a can of coffee costs around ¥100, essentially you are paying ¥900 for a badge. This kind of “extra” or “bonus” in Japanese marketing and retail is known as the omake, and can be used to exploitative effect when you have otaku and fans eager to get their hands on any piece of limited-edition merchandise.

We think they missed a trick, though, and should have made fully branded drink cans as well.

Madoka Magica vending machines have appeared before, when they were installed in 2013 in otaku subculture areas in three cities: Akihabara (Tokyo), Nipponbashi (Osaka), and Tenjin (Fukuoka).

Images via Buzz Plus.

In Japan, even the police have their own moe cute mascot characters.

The Japanese metropolitan police has a “crime deterrence measures” department. While that sounds very serious, in Japan that needn’t preclude being kawaii.

This can be seen in Tewatasanaiinu (roughly, “don’t leave it to others dog”), the official (and highly original) mascot for the department’s Twitter account that was given official recognition in late 2015, though has been delighting the Internet since 2013.

The mascot is supposed to encourage you to keep an eye out for crime and how you can prevent it in your daily life.

The dog character was soon became the inspiration for a host of illustrations by amateurs and ordinary citizens (kind of crowdsourcing a crime prevention awareness campaign).

The peculiar appeal of Tewatasanaiinu is probably one reason why the Twitter account grew recently to over 130,000 followers. To celebrate, Tewatasanaiinu was shown doing some New Year cleaning (a tradition in Japan) and wishing her followers a Happy Christmas.

Here poses Tewatasanaiinu with pop idols Momoiro Clover Z as part of a PR campaign.

Experienced mascot spotters will note that this character is firmly in the furry animal or kemono-musume zone, anthropomorphizing an animal in a cute female way.

If you think this is new, though, think again. There have been legions of police mascot characters for years, coming in all shapes and sizes.

While detractors may think of this as part of the whole “wacky Japan” narrative, there is an argument to be made that such mascots show a real creative verve and an intriguing approach towards marketing uniquely Japanese.