Police Mascots

The staging area for commemorative photos, complete with piipo-kun.

One of my special assignments for my Japanese Society and Culture class was to visit the Police Museum in Tokyo. What greeted me at the entrance was this guy.—>
Somehow, though, saying he greeted me at the entrance is putting it lightly: He wasn't just in one place at the entrance—he was all over it.

I was pretty confused, so I went inside to ask the museum personnel why Japan was being invaded by aliens and the police weren't doing anything to stop it. Well, I didn't say it exactly like that, but I did ask what the alien-looking thing outside was. The guy I asked looked kind of confused about how to explain it to me, but he eventually said it was the Tokyo Metropolitan Police station's mascot Piipo-kun (ピーポくん), and he said they took the cute features of different animals and put them together in the design: His ears are huge so he can hear the people's voices; he has an antenna to sense the movements of society; and his eyes see even into the nooks and crannies of society. I wasn't sure if those last two features were good or bad. Sounds a little like a nuclear experiment created an irresistibly cute Big Brother instead of Godzilla, but the explanation about his name was a lot cheerier.

His name comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the English word people (piipuru, ピープル) and the Japanese pronunciation of the English word police (porisu, ポリス). They mashed the two words together to get piipo because he is supposed to be a bridge between the people and the police. Then they added the Japanese "kun" (a title similar to Mr. or Mrs. except its friendly, not just polite). Someone in the Tokyo metro police station was a fantastic marketer or a refreshingly idealistic person.

A flyer on the bulletin board outside the Tokyo police headquarters.

After that trip I started noticing Piipo-kun all over the place: in construction signs, on warning signs, on safety bulletins and other police announcements/signs. Piipo-kun even has a whole family, as you can see on this bulletin outside the Tokyo metro police headquarters. The bulletin is a disarmingly friendly summary of laws/rules for bicycles. Check out how much info is on it (click for a bigger view): It tells kids to wear a helmet for safety and asks adults not to ride their bikes while talking on a cell phone; it encourages kids to follow traffic lights and to remember to check both ways before crossing the stree; it reminds adults that bicycling with a cell phone, with an umbrella, without a light at night, and with two people on one bike is dangerous and prohibited; It even answers legal questions. You have to use the road and not the sidewalk when you ride your bike, except for certain specially marked areas and unless you are a kid under 13, an elderly person (70+), or have a disability. Hitting pedestrians with a bike counts as a traffic accident and can result in both a criminal case and a civil case, just as car accidents do.

So it seems that Piipo-kun does serve as a bridge between the people and the police. He even has his own website on the Tokyo metro police site. When I got back to my dorm I researched the police mascot thing, and it
turns out that every single prefecture in Japan has its own police mascot. Check them all out here. I'm pretty sure that at public events it's some police officer's job to wear the mascot suit. I find this all fascinating because it seems to be a terrific way for the police to try to maintain a good reputation and be friendly with the citizenry, not that the Japanese police seem to need the help.

Japanese police are remarkably approachable. There is nearly always an officer or two stationed at a police box within a block of each train station. There are even officers who patrol the area on foot in addition to those on motorcycles and in cars. It's an official part of the police's job to give people directions, and the police boxes usually have maps in case the police need extra help telling you how to get where you want to go. The Japanese police even have a supply of money to lend people who have lost their wallets so that they can afford the train ride home (unfortunately not everyone pays the money back).

Now, I'm sure there are corrupt police and cases of police brutality or something in Japan, but most people don't seem worried about such things, and I didn't see any reports of it while I was there (though I also can't read everything in the newspaper yet). These mascots, on top of the direction-giving policy, are PR gold because they ensure that the populace have friendly, non-crime-related interactions with the police force. I wouldn't even dream of stopping the police in America to ask for directions, and I imagine that most people only see the police when they're investigating a crime or handing out traffic tickets. Hopefully, American police still do elementary school visits. Otherwise there's little opportunity for the police to develop a positive relationship with the citizenry. The closest thing to the police mascot America has is McGruff the crime dog, though I haven't seen him around in a while and I don't think he's an official police officer.

I get the feeling, though, that in America people might think extensive use of mascots would somehow be unprofessional. I know at first I thought Piipo-kun was ridiculous. Now, though, I think there's a lot of potential in these sorts of PR techniques to change the paradigm of our relationship with the police. Many communities have a negative view of police, and many don't cooperate with them. But if they never interact with police in a positive way, how can the situation change. It would be nothing short of glorious if the solution to the problem is as simple as a cartoony figure like McGruff, but I don't think it would be unrealistic to say that those kinds of PR moves and positive community interaction could really make a difference.