Last October, to address complaints of unimaginative license plates, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism allowed for 41 localities to create alternative optional license plates celebrating local culture – of these 41, Kumamoto Prefecture’s plate provided to be the most popular with 8,290 ordered as of April 1 this year. Followed closely behind by Hiroshima Prefecture’s Fukuyama and Miyagi Prefecture’s Sendai license plates, Kumamoto clinched in large part to its adorable regional mascot “Kumamon”, whose ursine features can be found all over the plate with emblems of the Kato and Hosokawa clans who have played prominent roles in the prefecture’s history. Kumamon himself was there to receive an award acknowledging the achievement on April 25 alongside former Hiroshima Carp pitcher Manabu Kitabeppu at the Ministry. Let’s hope that a little more cuteness on the road keeps road rage to a minimum! Source: Sanspo.com, 4/25/2019
Photo: Kumamoto Prefecture
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