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Japan's Ruling Party Puts Out Poster That Looks Too Familiar to Slam Dunk Fans

If there's one thing political campaigns like to rely on, it's popular culture. Those in the U.S. are familiar with the overtures of Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the USA” playing at political rallies and the famous Obama “Hope” poster using street art aesthetics as ways to propel campaigns for political office. The U.S. isn't alone in this, as a flyer from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan's rulling center-right party, looks strikingly familiar to fans of the hit movie The First Slam Dunk.

The poster for mayoral elections in Kanuma City in Tochigi Prefecture was brought to light by several Japanese news outlets on June 10, with the earliest being Kyodo News via Yahoo! Japan News. The news agency also noted the poster could potentially violate Japanese copyright law.

A later report by the Nikkan Sports and The Sankei Shinbun papers went into further detail regarding the LDP's flyer, specifically on possible copyright violations. Both newspapers quote Hiroyuki Nakajima, a lawyer familiar with Japanese copyright law (roughly translated): “He argued the number of people, their poses, clothing, jersey numbers, and composition of the flyers could remind people of the essential characteristics of the movie poster for The First Slam Dunk. 'There is a risk of infringing on the right to adapt the copyright,' he said.” Nikkan Sports further reports that the LDP leadership for the mayoral race claimed they saw a similar poster used at a shopping district in a separate prefecture and asked a younger staffer to make something similar. So, there was some intentionality to the LDP's poster design.

However, uses on the Yaraon! blog were quick to point out one factor of Slam Dunk many, including myself, are not familiar with. The manga's creator, Takehiko Inoue, apparently based many of the manga's iconic scenes on basketball trading cards. One anonymous Yaraon blog user posted on June 10 several images from the manga paired with basketball trading cards. And the similarities are striking.

This raises the question: to what level is it OK to take inspiration from another work? For instance, Inoue reportedly traced the figures in the cards above but replaced the players with the characters from his manga. So, in a certain sense this should be fine–a sort of art taking inspiration from the real world.

However, in the case of the LDP's political posters, we can see little effort was placed in making even the most minor changes. All that was really done was change the faces and the name on the jersey. The font type and even the layout have not been altered, or were minimally altered, for the political poster. Even just putting the politicians in business suits could have potentially mitigated some of the condemnation the LDP in Kanuma City is receiving.

As of the writing of this article, neither Inoue nor Toei Animation has released a statement regarding the LDP's poster. So, until they decide something, only the court of public opinion will cast their thoughts on the matter.

This isn't the first time a Japanese politician has leaned in on anime or manga iconography in his or her political campaign. In 2020, musician and oft political candidate Teruki Gotō dressed as Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass in his bid for Tokyo's governor. However, the anime studio Sunrise released a statement saying it was in no way affiliated with Gotō. Gotō quickly issued an apology, and his campaign posters of him dressed as Lelouch were removed from political ad billboards in the metropolis.

What legal action, if any, will be taken against the Kanuma LDP will be interesting to see. Especially considering Happy Elements recently mobilized the Kyoto Prefectural Police to arrest a woman for altering a copyrighted image and posting it on her social media. But if legal action is taken, I highly suspect the person who will take the blame is some no-named staffer of the LDP rather than the higher-ups within the organization.

Sources: Yahoo! Japan News, Nikkan Sports, The Sankei Shinbun via Yaraon!, Seila Fujii's X/Twitter account