8/18/2010

In this video from JapanProbe.com’s Japanese Police Mascots, ” there are at least 42 different [tacky] police mascot characters in Japan” (more info).

According to the video the antlered mascot is “Napo-kun”—“Na” is short for Nara the ancient capital of Japan, “Po” is short for police and “kun” is the honorific for boy like the archaic use of Master in English as the opposite of Miss.
Napo-kun’s unfortunate antlers come from his “boss,” the the Horny Buddha Boy (3yen.com 2008-09-25) on the far left named “Sento-kun.” He’s the official mascot of the 1,300th Anniversary of the Nara that is supposed to be Buddhist child monk with a rack of deer antlers sprouting from his head that, “evokes Nara’s rich Buddhist history.” Mostly folks mock Sento-kun as Japan’s dorkest “Yuru-kyara” mascots.

Yuru-kyara —”Yuru” means “loose” or “weak” and “kyara” is short for “character”— and these weak-ass characters are the loveably crappy mascots employed by most governments and local PR campaigns.