In last week's Light Gist column, headlined "Mascots on a mission to explain the mundane," Colin P. A. Jones explored the marvellous menagerie of mascots deployed by Japanese authorities to educate adults and children alike about the law and the workings of government.

Please drop us a line with your ideas for mascots to represent any branch of the Japanese bureaucracy, national or local. Alternatively, create one yourself and send in a JPEG file of your idea.

The top submissions will be published and/or interpreted by artist Chris Mackenzie alongside the Sept. 27 Light Gist column. Send your ideas to [email protected] by 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23.