I am by no means an expert, but after living here for a while I have had to adjust my conception of what sacrelegious means. I think my understanding of it (aft

I am by no means an expert, but after living here for a while I have had to adjust my conception of what sacrelegious means. I think my understanding of it (after growing up in the US and primarily being exposed to christian and jewish customs) was 'pious sincerity' or 'seriousness'. In Japan, religious practice is not as serious as I was used to, even if many people are very serious about observing. There's not as much value placed in physical artifacts. Historic buildings get razed (pour one out for the Hotel Okura), earthquakes destroy cities… people move on. The culture needs to be respected and honored but new artifacts will always arise which honor that line of culture. You respect your ancestors by however you show respect.. bowing, keeeling, building a shrine out of discarded PS2's or whatever. If it is heartfelt, then how you do it mostly reflects on you. So associating a mascot (which is a totally accepted cultural tool) with a religious artifact isn't considered bad because there is no negative association with it. People love kumamon! Anyway, that's my view on it. I am sure I have a lot to learn still. As an aside: Even the police like to get in on the cute. Note the mascot at the bottom of the tokyo police website. Pepo-kun is all over Tokyo to make the police more approachable. He's named after the sound that police cars make: "peee-poh-peee-poh" http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/index.html http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/ind...