{"id":80778,"date":"2015-02-19T12:14:59","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T03:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=59120"},"modified":"2016-04-01T02:46:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:46:54","slug":"fukuokas-kawaii-ku-cute-ward-to-be-discontinued","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/fukuokas-kawaii-ku-cute-ward-to-be-discontinued\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka\u2019s Kawaii-Ku (Cute Ward) To Be Discontinued"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kawaii-ku (Cute Ward), the virtual ward that Fukuoka City established in August 2012 to promote itself online, appears headed to the digital scrap heap. The unique initiative turned heads throughout Japan by tapping Mariko Shinoda of idol group AKB48 as its first \u201cMayor\u201d. Users who registered online as \u201cresidents\u201d of Kawaii-ku could opt in to a mailing list and purchase special resident certificates. The virtual ward also teamed up with local businesses on a range of promotions. In total, City Hall spent \u00a533 million on the initiative through the end of fiscal 2014. Shinoda stepped down as \u201cMayor\u201d after some residents complained that the Ward\u2019s focus on \u201ckawaii\u201d promoted gender discrimination. (Popular Canadian blogger Micaela Braithwaite is currently serving as the second \u201cMayor\u201d.) The Ward attracted 41,000 virtual residents by the end of fiscal 2012 but that number remains almost unchanged as of February 2015. Media exposure has fallen off, and some have questioned the wisdom of keeping the Ward alive. \u201cWhen an initiative\u2019s selling point is its novelty, that novelty is bound to wear off over time,\u201d remarked the city hall employee in charge of Kawaii-ku. Source: Yahoo Japan News 2\/19<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-19-at-12.07.03-PM-e1424315499531.png?resize=641%2C411\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-19 at 12.07.03 PM\" width=\"641\" height=\"411\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59121\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kawaii-ku (Cute Ward), the virtual ward that Fukuoka City established in August 2012 to promote itself online, appears headed to the digital scrap heap. The unique initiative turned heads throughout Japan by tapping Mariko Shinoda of idol group AKB48 as its first \u201cMayor\u201d. Users who registered online as \u201cresidents\u201d of Kawaii-ku could opt in to a mailing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":59121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-80778","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-category-general","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/80778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}