Japanese Ferry Companies Try to Overcome the Predicament By Moe Characters

According to Asahi Shinbun, two ferry companies decided to use moe characters for PR. Nankai Ferry and Kokudo Ferry have been suffering from a steep drop of passengers due to the government-directed discount of the highway tolls since March 2009. Nankai Ferry and the prefectural governments of Tokushima and Wakayama held a conference and decided to use shoujo characters for PR. Nankai Ferry launched a character campaign in January and is distributing character goods to the passengers.

Two PR characters of Nankai Ferry

In Kokudo Ferry's case, an adult mangaka Yamato Akira heard of the financial crisis the local ferry and donated his original characters . Kokudo Ferry immediately adopted his proposal and started to sell stickers and T-shirts of the characters.

Utaka Sisters of Kokudo Ferry
Yamato Akira's website

Both of the companies anticipate that young people will be interested in the ferry travel by the characters.

Source: Asahi Shinbun