James Bond (And Bond Girls) In Kagawa Prefecture

When the James Bond novel The Man With the Red Tattoo was published in 2002, the citizens of Kagawa Prefecture were thrilled that their prefecture, Japan’s smallest, was used as a setting for some of the events in the book. The town of Naoshima, which was specifically mentioned in the book, decided to pour its efforts into making the novel into a film, which would no doubt bring film crews and money to their island. In 2004, Naoshima held a “Bring James Bond to Naoshima” conference and set about gathering signatures for a petition begging filmmakers to shoot the next Bond film in Japan. They soon found out that the next Bond film would be based on an original screenplay, but this didn’t seem to make them give up on their goal.

Construction of a James Bond museum began on Naoshima in 2004, with local artists and volunteers contributing to the venture. When they eventually opened the museum in July 2005, they invited Raymond Benson, the author of The Man With The Red Tattoo, to attend the ceremony. Benson wrote an article about his experience visiting the museum, including his surprise at finding a picture of his family & dog on display, as well as how everyone wore “funny green slippers” to an award ceremony held in the Naoshima City Hall. I guess there weren’t any scenes in the novel where James Bond had to change into slippers?

Earlier this week, NTV’s Real Time News traveled to the Kagawa Prefecture after discovering out that there was a James Bond on their staff:

The man who introduces himself as Kagawa’s James Bond is actually a 24-year-old British guy named Andrew Cockburn, a JET Program CIR who works to promote Anglo-Japanese exchange programs while doing PR work for the prefecture’s James Bond museum. The most recent project he took part in was a Bond Girl Pageant held in Naoshima last weekend:

Twenty women between the ages of 19 and 36 participated in the pageant, which included a James Bond trivia quiz and speeches from the contestants on what makes the James Bond films special. In the end, the winner was 25-year-old Sachie Manabe(seen in the video above), who speaks excellent English (having lived in America) and enjoys flamenco dancing.