Anime and Manga helping Tourism in Japan!

Local governments are using Manga and Anime to attract people and increase tourism…and it seems to work. Here are some examples of how it works…

Manga and anime are more than just forms of entertainment for several local governments that have recently revitalized their economies by drawing on the pulling power of works in these pop genres that have ties to their respective cities and towns.

Various anime titles have been exploited, ranging from classic stories to the latest popular hits, helping attract a wide range of enthusiastic fans to different areas.

Officials of municipalities in which anime scenes have been depicted have utilized various techniques–from car contests to robots to statues of gremlins–to attract more visitors.

As many famous manga artists and illustrators–including Reiji Matsumoto, Seizo Watase and Tsukasa Hojo–hail from the city of Kitakyushu, the city government announced a plan to open a manga museum with the aim of utilizing the artists’ work to help revitalize the local economy.

The planned museum will feature a history of manga, themed exhibitions and many other events, such as classes in how to draw manga.

Currently, museum officials are collecting items to display in the museum. Though its opening has been delayed, an official of the city government’s culture promotion division said, “We want to open the museum as soon as possible.”

In addition to the planned museum, other manga-based tourist-luring measures have been adopted.

For example, a robot that looks like Maetel, a character in Matsumoto’s anime “Ginga Tetsudo 999″ (Galaxy Express 999), has been installed at a tourist guide booth in Kitakyushu Airport.

Local university students and others concerned manufactured the robot to help promote the airport.

Controlled by a touch panel on the counter, the 1.7-meter-tall robot informs visitors about the airport’s facilities and locations in the city using gentle tones similar to the voice of the character in the film.

Many fans of the anime say they visit the airport to see the robot.

As Kitakyushu’s economy is built on manufacturing industries it has been hard hit by the current economic slump. Local people have high hopes for the planned museum, with some saying they are optimistic it can act as a trigger to rejuvenate the local community.

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Gremlin street

Sakaiminato, a port city in western Tottori Prefecture is famous for zuwaigani, or queen crabs–a popular winter food in areas facing the Sea of Japan. Recently, the city also has been attracting attention as a place “where gremlins call out to people.”

This popularity stems from “Gegege no Kitaro” manga and anime products created by Shigeru Mizuki, an 87-year-old cartoonist from the city.

Shigeru Mizuki Road, an 800-meter-long street stretching from JR Sakaiminato Station, sports 134 large and small bronze statues of gremlins along its length. Shops on the streets sell souvenirs, confectionery and many other goods featuring gremlins depicted in Mizuki’s works.

The number of tourists visiting the city jumped from slightly more than 20,000 in 1993 to more than 1.72 million in 2008.

Many people have expressed an interest in opening shops on the street, which had been semi-deserted before the boom began.

The city government installed 80 gremlin statues between fiscal 1992 and 1996. Though the initial move was geared toward providing places for local people to pause and take a rest, tourists from outside the prefecture increased. Then, in 2003, the city government opened Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Museum.

Individuals from the private sector then took over the campaign, soliciting sponsors to build more gremlin statues. Though the sponsorship fee for each statue was 1 million yen, applications flooded in from across the nation.

Junichi Gonda, chairman of a local association to promote Shigeru Mizuki Road, said, “Mr. Mizuki’s works have attracted three generations of fans.”

Though the city has a limited number of accommodation facilities, Masami Kuroda, deputy head of the secretariat of the city’s tourism association, said, “[To help provide more accommodation] we intend to cooperate across broader areas, such as Kaike Onsen hot spring resort in Yonago [in the prefecture].”

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Shrine ready to host anime fans

As shrines across the nation prepare to welcome New Year well-wishers, one shrine in Saitama Prefecture is aiming to attract a particular group of people–anime fans.

Washinomiya Shrine in Washimiyamachi is a doubly sacred place for fans of “Raki Suta” (Lucky Star), a popular manga-based TV anime series, because it is said to be the model for a shrine that appears in the story.

The municipal governments of Washimiyamachi and Satte, the latter of which also neighbors the shrine, are planning to sell special “residency cards” with anime characters printed on them. They also plan to open public parking lots to people who visit the shrine in “itasha”–cars decorated with stickers and paintings of characters and other items related to the anime.

“Raki Suta” tells the comedic tale of high school girl Izumi Konata, who lives in a city apparently modeled on Satte. The serial manga, which also features Izumi’s friend Tsukasa Hiiragi, was made into a TV anime series in 2007 and has since won many die-hard fans.

Washinomiya Shrine, which is said to be the oldest grand shrine in the Kanto region, appears in the story as Takanomiya Shrine.

Thanks to the popularity of the series, the number of visitors to the shrine during the first three days of this year increased by about 120,000 from the same period the previous year to about 420,000, making it the second-most popular shrine among New-Year visitors in the prefecture, after Omiya Hikawa Shrine in Saitama.

The municipal government of Washimiyamachi, which in April last year registered Hiiragi’s family as residents of the town, will sell the special residency cards for 300 yen each in the shrine’s parking lot from New Year’s Eve to Jan. 3.

As the town will be merged with the city of Kuki in March, a town official said the cards were created partly to commemorate the closing of the town.

On New Year’s Day, Satte will register Konata’s family and sell special residency certificates for 300 yen at a ceremony at the city hall.

JTB Tokyo Metropolitan Corp., a group firm of travel agency JTB Corp., will offer a tour from Akihabara, Tokyo, to the shrine from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day.

The commerce and industry association of Washimiyamachi has asked shops around the shrine to remain open during the year-end and the New Year. About 40 shops, or about half of the total, are set to follow this request.

A residents association near the shrine will open its community hall for fans to use as a place to rest.

Takuo Suzuki, 69, a member of the community hall management committee, said he wants to ensure the fans stay warm.

Source: Yomiuri Online

If you plan to visit Japan someday, what “Anime” place would you like to visit?

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