Come See Saitama! Home to Beautiful... Uniforms!

I admit that it’s been awhile since I’ve been forced to take a step back and say ‘alright, time out!’ Today something came across my reader that just makes one stop and think. The prefecture of Saitama in Japan has received an official request from the “Prefectural Anime Tourism Investigative Commission” to change their school uniforms to the ones used in ‘Lucky Star‘. The idea behind the change is to promote tourism in the area by baiting otaku in from all over the world to take pictures of school girls on a daily basis (my words, not theirs). This appears to be just one of the many suggestions that will be coming from the group when they make their final report next year on how to boost anime tourism in the prefecture.

Now, before I proceed with the making fun of these people, let’s look at this from their perspective. ‘Lucky Star’ has been a pretty lucrative title for the prefecture since its premiere. The shrine where the Hiiragi sisters receives otaku visitors all the time (as has been documented by many different sites) and a museum is in the works as well. In an economy that is still struggling and a prime minister who is actively pushing the country to use their ’soft power’ cultural exports cashing in on Lucky Star just makes sense.

However, who is going to think that this is going to be a good idea in the long run? Yes, it would be very cool to see an entire prefecture littered with uniforms from a hugely popular anime. No one is denying the awesomeness that could be generated in one concentrated place through this. But do you really want to turn your entire schoolgirl population into walking exhibits for foreign otaku? And you don’t think that it won’t be just the tiniest bit distracting for them? Things are already rather dicey with eroge coming under attack for promoting abuse towards women, so naturally the government is going to come up with the idea of turning their teenage girls into attractions. Apparently in this case it’s only a crime when the girls are 2D.