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Mascots, Cryptids, and UFOs: Civic Monsters in Contemporary Japan
Why are cute and creepy mascots so ubiquitous among Japan’s cities and regions? Is there a Japanese Bigfoot? Have extraterrestrials ever landed in Japan? This dinner reception and lecture for K-12 Educators features a talk by William Tsutsui where he'll trace the history of Japanese mascots, cryptids, and UFOs, exploring how invented, imagined, and unexplained creatures have been deployed in tourism campaigns, the creation of regional identity, and local commercial boosterism. These “civic monsters” grew from Japan’s rich and distinctive monster culture of folkloric yōkai and cinematic kaijū but are also deeply woven into global circuitries of politics, capitalism, media, and play.