J-List is based in Gunma, a landlocked prefecture in the exact center of Japan that’s said to be shaped like a crane in flight, which is a pretty Japanese observation to make. It’s a land of mountains — Gunma is the setting for the Initial D mountain racing anime — plus there are many onsen hot springs, which is fine by me. While we like our prefecture a lot, we’re not always happy with our city of Isesaki for various reasons. These days there’s a boom in anime series being set in real locations, in part to add a realistic flavor to a two-dimensional world but also to help promote interest in rural parts of Japan. The Komoro and Lake Kizaki regions of Nagano Prefecture are featured in the anime Please, Ichika! Ano Natsu de Matteru, and these areas have worked closely with the animation studios to help promote ota-tourism, bringing in fans who want to visit the locations in the anime and buy limited products you can only find there. Similarly, if you take a trip to Hokkaido you’ll be able to find lots of limited edition Hatsune Miku products, which has become part of the character of Sapporo. But despite the fact that Isesaki is the setting for the Nichijou anime, our city totally failed to realize the benefit of promoting this fact to the outside world. When I think of the limited edition Nichijou Roll Cake we could have used to bring in tourist dollars, featuring Nano and Hakase and Sakamoto on the package, it brings a tear to my eye.
Our city failed to bring in Nichijou tourism.
