TOKYO (AP) – Eighty-eight places in Japan are going to be designated “animation spots” to encourage tourism – using train stations, school campuses, rural shrines and other fairly everyday places where popular “manga” characters are depicted.
Such landmarks number in the tens of thousands, given the popularity and volume of “manga” comics In Japan. But this is being billed as the official list for any fan’s animation “pilgrimage,” as the places are known as “seichi,” or “sacred spots.”
People around the world can vote on the landmarks through a website set up in several languages, including English and Chinese.
“Japanese pop culture has grown to rival American Hollywood,” Tsugihiko Kadokawa, chairman of Kadokawa Corp. publisher and film studio, one of the officials behind the effort, said Friday at a Tokyo news conference. “Animation can change the times.”
The project highlights Japan’s recent push to make tourism a valuable boon for a stagnant economy, as dynamic as the export of the long-hailed Toyota cars and Sony video-game machines.