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It’s widely known that just about everything in Japan has a mascot character associated with it, from train stations to hemp. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is no different with Peopo-kun who’s been repping law enforcement in the capital for 35 years.
▼ Peopo-kun often appears in animated safety videos for kids.
The name “Peopo” is a portmanteau of the words “people” and “police” symbolizing his role as a bridge between the two, and with so many years of service under his belt, he’s famous around the country. However, with such fame comes the threat of people looking to capitalize off it.
On Dec 12, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police charged a man in his 30s and woman in her 40s with trademark violation after they were found selling unauthorized stickers bearing the likeness of Peopo-kun. Not only did the character on the sticker have a strong resemblance to Peopo-kun but it was shown giving the middle finger with the caption “imprisonment supreme” as well as “goodbye police” written on a bar across its eyes.
The married suspects were producing three types of these stickers for about 1,000 yen each through the popular flea market app Mercari and other websites since autumn 2020. An officer discovered the stickers while on “cyber patrol” – which is essentially police officers browsing websites and message boards, looking for crime. The couple admitted to the infringement, saying that they made about 80,000 yen from the sales.
It’s an open-and-shut case for law enforcement, and the court of public opinion in online comments seemed to concur that they had this couple dead to rights, no matter how funny the offending stickers might have been.
“That’s hilarious.”
“They could have just posted it on Twitter and gone viral. Selling it is crossing the line.”
“I seem to remember someone doing something like this before, only Peopo-kun was shooting a gun.”
“Police-themed doujin goods?”
“This should be allowed because it’s funny.”
“So, are they going to get imprisonment supreme?”
“Since they were charged and not arrested, they’ll probably get a fine supreme.”
“Someone should do the same thing but with Mickey Mouse.”
“That couple’s got guts infringing on the police’s trademark.”
It does make one wonder if the couple stopped to consider whether illegally using a police trademark was a wise business decision or not. Then again, maybe in the world of bootleg goods, Peopo-kun represents the ultimate challenge and these sneaky spouses were looking to make a name for themselves.
While their core motives remain murky, one thing we can take away from this story is that “cyber patrol” is an actual thing. So, the next time someone gives you grief for spending too much time online, you’ll know what to tell them.
Sources: Mainichi Shimbun, Hachima Kiko
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- In Luffy we trust – Man arrested for selling dollar bills with unlicensed One Piece stickers
-- Elderly Wakayama woman arrested for hacking her local supermarket’s self-checkout
-- 23-year-old Tokyo policewoman falls in movie-style love with yakuza member, real life ensues
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2022/12/16/tokyo-couple-caught-making-stickers-with-police-mascot-flipping-bird/
23 Comments
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dagon
Your tax yen at work for the popo to surf the web on “cyber patrol”.
Considering the amount of crimes the police are caught doing and other harassment and discrimination the police and their mascots deserve more satire and parody.
And in this economy they should be ashamed of cracking down on this couple's side hustle when there are so many bigger fish to fry.
Capuchin
Hard to have much sympathy for the Japanese police when just last week they were reported to have left a mentally handicapped man naked, handcuffed and dead in a toilet bowl after hundreds of hours of detention. Not to mention new reports on rampant racial profiling and discrimination carried out the police.
I'm sure there are far more important crimes the cyber squad could be on the lookout for than this minor act of subversion. The only crime here is that horrendous character design.
dan
@Capuchin spot on!!
gogogo
Its a parody and perfectly legal.
Chabbawanga
PARODY
oh wait, do they know what parody is in Japan?
noriahojanen
It's a relevant parody. We don't need moral police.
Sven Asai
And then they still wonder why no children are born, when young couples are hunted down for just making some additional bucks to withstand highly expensive costs of daily living and those out of bounds moon prices on many imported goods or food.
garypen
In the US, and probably other Western countries, it is. But, Japan takes copyright and trademark laws incredibly seriously, and has no exception for parody or satire, unfortunately.
In fact, I'm not sure they even grasp parody and satire, and often just find it to be mocking and insulting. The humor here seems to consist largely of yelling, making funny faces, and smacking each other over the head.
starpunk
I've seen parodies like that, even with Mickey Mouse. But I thought the bird/middle finger wasn't used in Japan or anywhere else in the Orient. It's used in the US and Canada but other nations have their own obscene gestures.
Aly Rustom
Beat me to it.
I wonder how many of them are surfing porn with the excuse that they are looking for illegal porn that doesn't pixel out genitalia...
wallace
Job for the serious crime squad.
Aly Rustom
Hit the nail on the head
Nemo
Is "Cyber Patrol" akin to "watching porn on duty"? Cause I bet they do a fair amount of that too.
Ah_so
I've always found that the Japanese have a relatively good sense of irony - after all, in a society of understatement, honne and tatemae, it comes in useful. I don't think it works in quite the same way as where I come from - walking in to the office from heavy rain and gale with a comment about it being lovely weather would probably confuse.
But the appreciation they have for the subtle ironies of life do not translate well to popular comedy which is focused on adolescent slapstick.
OssanAmerica
The Middle finger has been used in Japan for at least 15years.
kohakuebisu
Err, no. ピーポ "Piipo" in Japanese is the sound of a police siren in Japanese. Every Japanese person will say this. Many of them will not know this "famous around the country" character and are even less likely to know or think the name has anything to do with "people" or "police". "Piipo-piipo-piipo" is what you say to your kid when you play with a model police car.
englisc aspyrgend
A tad heavy handed I would have thought? A warning to desist or they will be prosecuted for breach of copyright would have been enough. Of course had they then been foolish enough to keep going that would be another matter.
falseflagsteve
Ruddy police are bonkers wasting money like this. Catch the proper criminals you maniacs and stop killing people in custody.
Desert Tortoise
What the couple did should never be punished. it is a sign of immaturity on the part of the police and prosecutors to even think of prosecuting them, too small and shallow to tolerate being satirized. One hopes a judge takes a more balanced view of the situation and dismisses the charges. I know, it is unlikely.
finally rich
oh, interesting headline but it's Sora News again... TLDR can anyone please let me know from which paragraph the article actually starts
William Bjornson
The oddest thing here in that the 'police' have a 'trademark'. The closest thing that the U.S. has is McGruff, the sophisticated but cynical police dog in a trench coat... and the saddest thing is portraying what is the most brutal aspect of any society, ENFORCEMENT, as a child's toy to mitigate in the less generously gifted mentalities the hideous realities that surface in the news daily.