Well it’s about time!
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Japan’s tourism board assigns mascots for each of Japan’s districts as a way for brand recognition and merchandise sells. If you see Kumamon, you know you’re in the Kumamoto Prefecture for example. These mascots draw in huge amounts of money and there’s probably one unofficial mascot that just became legit.
Godzilla, or Gojira, has been granted residency papers by the Shinjuku ward office after being assigned as an official tourism ambassador for Tokyo. Officials even handed out copies of the certificate to the first 3,000 fans as “proof”.
It reads:
“Name: Godzilla
Address: Shinjuku-ku, Kabuki-cho, 1-19-1
Date of birth: April 9, 1954 (the year of the release of the very first Godzilla film)
Date of becoming a Shinjuku resident: April 9, 2015
Reason for special residency: Promoting the entertainment of and watching over the Kabuki-cho neighborhood and drawing visitors from around the globe in the form of the Godzilla head built atop the Shinjuku TOHO Building.
Previous visits to Shinjuku Ward: 3 times; Godzilla (1984), Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991), Godzilla 2000 Millennium (1999)”
We had ComicBook.com would like to send Godzilla our most heartfelt congratulations.