Kumamoto Prefecture announced on Jan. 11 a collaboration with the Chinese bicycle-sharing service called Ofo. The well-established company provides over 10 million rental bikes to major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. The agreement will see the prefecture’s mascot Kumamon appear on 50,000 bikes for one month starting on Jan. 16, helping to promote Kumamoto overseas in the process. A Kumamoto-based company called Cyber Sourcing will also be involved in the promotion. The company’s president, Steve Chan, recently paid a visit to Kumamoto Governor Ikuo Kabashima and stated his intention to use Kumamon’s popularity in China to raise the prefecture’s profile. Those involved hope to see the Kumamon bikes used 100 million times during the month-long initiative. Source: Sankei Shimbun, 1/11/2018
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