Kumamoto mascot Kumamon has been missing in the wake of last week¡¯s devastating earthquakes in Kyushu, spurring concern on social media for its safety as well as criticism for the prefectural government¡¯s failure to use the furry animal¡¯s network to share information.
Kumamon is a round-faced bear about 1.5 meters tall tasked with promoting tourism and local products. It has more than 460,000 followers on .
However, it hasn¡¯t sent a tweet since Thursday, when it said it was looking forward to the 2019 Rugby World Cup. That night a magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck the region.
In the days since, some Twitter followers have expressed concern for the bear¡¯s safety, while others criticized Kumamoto for not utilizing the account to disperse information about the quake.
¡°Kumamon, it was a big earthquake with lots of aftershocks, so it must have been a restless night. I pray for the safety of Kumamon and everyone else,¡± wrote someone with the user name harunohaha.
¡°I didn¡¯t think it would be inappropriate if Kumamon continued to tweet updates. But someone mentioned that the person inside Kumamon is a government person, right? I don¡¯t think he/she has any time to be putting on an animal skin right now,¡± wrote a user whose post was re-tweeted more than 5,000 times.
Mascots are a big part of local and prefectural governments¡¯ efforts to entice visitors.
In 2011, Kumamon was voted the most popular mascot in a nationwide character competition.
Kumamoto Prefecture, which features the Kurokawa hot-spring resort and a castle site that dates back to 1467, attracted almost 60 million last year. Of those, 483,891 were non-Japanese, a 14.3 percent increase from the year before, according to a government survey.
Kumamon¡¯s official website released a comment Friday that it has decided to refrain from dispersing information about the quake to ¡°prioritize helping those affected by the quake.¡±
Officials from both the prefectural government and the Kumamoto Municipal Government, including Mayor Kazufumi Onishi, are among a handful of individuals who have started updating their accounts with information about the quake.
¡°There are rumors about Kumamon¡¯s disappearance. Its account is verified, so I think they should use it to tweet official updates,¡± wrote another user.
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