The International Herald Tribune wrote a story on the mascot for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Read it here, or look at coverage of the coverage at Japan Probe and Japundit. My wife found this cellphone strap she received a while back from a friend in the Defense Ministry and to celebrate this whirlwind of fresh attention the prince is getting I decided to put it to good use.
Note the inclusion here of Parsley-chan, the prince’s girlfriend, who was not mentioned in the IHT piece. Shocking sexism!
by James
21 Feb 2007 at 08:26
Damn, I wish I had one.
by Bryce
22 Feb 2007 at 11:32
That article was awful!
“The cutesy icon hardly calls to mind the Japanese military that conquered and pillaged its way across Asia during World War II, and *that is just the way the country’s leaders want it.*
*As Japan sheds its postwar pacifism* and gears up to take a higher military profile in the world, it is enlisting cadres of cute characters and adorable mascots to put a gentle, harmless sheen on its deployments.”
Reading the article made me feel as though Japan’s manga artists are being deployed to hide the fact that Japan has a spotted history, rather than just as a cutesy PR stunt. Of course the Japanese need a “harmless sheen” on their deployments because it is so self-evident to IHT readers that they are murderous scumbags. As if the Morning Musume have never been employed to advertise the military.
by Durf
22 Feb 2007 at 13:46
Well, yeah, but Morning Musume is just plain evil.