Japanese Defense Ministry Promotes Itself With ‘Lolita’ Manga
From yesterday’s Mainichi WaiWai column:
Growing numbers of government agencies have used borderline pedophile manga characters to promote their activities in recent years, but it’s the Defense Ministry’s little girl character that is attracting attention among Japan’s otaku, the monthly says.
In the “Manga de Yomu Boeisho Hakusho (Defense Ministry White Papers in Manga)” series printed in 2005, a little girl wearing “Lolita” fashions and an apron is involved in exchanges — sometimes violently — with a hawkish stuffed teddy bear as they rumble over the way Japan should defend itself.
News of the story spread through Japan’s Internet and by word of mouth and turned the manga into a hit, with second and third editions hitting the bookstores rapidly. It seemed a given that the publisher, Japan Defense Foundation for Mutual Aid, would be given the contract to print last year’s manga version of the ministry’s white papers, but things didn’t quite turn out that way.
“Publishing rights are decided in public bidding and another company undercut us,” a spokesman from the Japan Defense Foundation for Mutual Aid tells Cyzo. “But it was such a popular book that we didn’t want its success to end after only a single year. We asked the same author of the 2005 edition to draw up another manga using the same characters in a way that would help readers to understand what’s going on with the defense of Japan.”
The new book “Heiwa no Kuni no Nebaarando (The Neverland of the Peaceful Country)” has also proved to be as popular as its predecessor, with sales going well since its January release.
Japan Defense Foundation for Mutual Aid is confident its cutesy manga characters can drum up plenty of support for an industry that revolves around defending people.
Based on the pics from the manga that I’ve come across, I’d wouldn’t exactly use a harsh term like “borderline pedophile manga.” The Defense Ministry created some manga-style promotional materials in previous years using more chibi-style characters, and this latest comic seems just seems to build on that idea by following current trends in cute manga character popularity.
If you’re interested in checking out this manga, a few scans of it can be viewed here, or you can order a copy from this page.
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It would be disturbing if grown men liked this kind of stuff, but here’s what I think.
Maybe it’s targetted towards children as well; children tend to not know about how the government works—and even non-otaku children read manga as well.
But they sure do! >:)
Mostly otaku men, though.
Its kinda like how cigarette companies try to target kids in America
This gave me chills…
Eh? What’s wrong with it? It’s not very sinister.
Looks clean to me.
It’s the girl that is the hawk, according to the site linked to. (Yeah, hawk chicks are hot….) But paedophilic? Ridiculous. She doesn’t even show anything above the knee. I’d say it’s about as paedophilic as Alice in Wonderland, but that might be a bad comparison, considering Dodgson’s dodgy ideas.
I don’t think this is primarily aimed at kids, due to the lack of furigana beside the kanji.
And that blue garment looks like a skirt rather than an apron.
I can’t really blame certain Japanese for wanting more muscle – with not only the Norks but the Chinese and their constant sabre-rattling right next door.