Over the past few decades, towns, cities and prefectures throughout Japan have been churning out mascots to represent and promote themselves, resulting in an annual contest, the Yuru-kyara Grand Prix, that has come to symbolize their popularity.
But last year's contest in Osaka in November for the promotional mascots known as yuru-kyara drew attention after it was discovered that some, including the Konyudo-kun character from Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, were being propped up by organized voting schemes involving civil servants who cast multiple ballots by abusing voting IDs.
We asked people involved in creating the ubiquitous mascots to speak about their outlook for the boom.