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Akihabara Fire Station Gets Moe Mascot Girl Yokumi Kanda
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The Kanda Fire Station in Tokyo's Akihabara district unveiled a new moe mascot character on Friday. "Yokumi Kanda" currently appears on posters, pocket tissue packets, and other promotional materials for the fire station.
An official from the fire station noted that planners chose a beautiful girl character "because Akihabara is the center of moe culture." The area's fire-fighting group during the Edo period (1603-1868) inspired Yokumi's name, which was coined with input from the public. Tokyo Fire and Disaster Management Agency's mascot character Kyūta also appears on Yokumi's hip. The "119" on the characters' uniforms references the telephone number for fire and emergency medical services in Japan (similar to "911" in the United States and Canada).
Illustrator Tsukasa Nagano provided Yokumi's character design. Nagano previously illustrated the moe mascot character Konko Fox to promote the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn in Japan.
Matsudo, a city in Chiba Prefecture just east of Tokyo, also produced the police-style magical girl character Aya Matsumiya to promote crime prevention last year. The character made her singing debut with a theme song CD this past December.
Source: ASCII.jp via Hachima Kikō
Image © Tsukasa Nagano
