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Japanese Government Hires Detective Conan for PR Campaign

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a public relations campaign that uses the manga character Detective Conan to educate children on the ministry's mission. As unveiled on April 6, the centerpiece of the campaign is a manga-format pamphlet entitled "Detective Conan Investigates the Ministry of Foreign Affairs!"

In the pamphlet, the father of Conan's girlfriend is traveling abroad when his luggage and passport gets stolen and he gets caught in an apparent riot with gunshots. The ministry saves the day by issuing a new passport and informing him that "Country A" is just celebrating a festival with firecrackers.

The pamphlet credits list Masaru Ota and Kazuhiro Kubota (staff artists of Conan creator Gosho Aoyama) for the art. The ministry plans to distribute the 5000 copies of the 16-page, half-B5-sized pamphlet to elementary and junior high school students on field trips to the ministry and other occasions. The pamphlet cost the ministry 5 million yen (US$41,000) to produce.

VIZ Media publishes Detective Conan in English under the title Case Closed. Downloadable PDF copies of the ministry's pamphlet are available at its website.

Image © Gosho Aoyama/Shogakukan