Residents of Kitakata, a northwestern Fukushima Prefecture city known for promoting antiquated Japanese kanji, are stepping up efforts to attract more tourists by linking the pictographs to sake breweries in the area.
Kitakata wo Kanji no Machi ni suru Kai, a citizens' group promoting pictographs created some 3,000 years ago, is preparing walking courses to encourage people to visit breweries in the city.
They hope that tourists on the walking courses will join games to check signboards bearing an ancient character symbolizing each brewery and come up with words by putting the characters together.