Ad rule means end of Doraemon train

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Odakyu Electric Railway Co.'s special train featuring Doraemon and other popular cartoon characters created by Fujiko F. Fujio

Odakyu Electric Railway Co. has decided to discontinue a special train featuring Doraemon and other popular cartoon characters created by late manga artist Fujiko F. Fujio, following complaints from the Tokyo metropolitan government that the train violates a metropolitan ordinance on advertising.

The Odakyu F-Train will end its operations at the end of this month, the firm announced Thursday. It had been scheduled to run between Shinjuku and Odawara, in addition to other routes, until about August next year.

The railway operator decided to run the train to promote the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum, which opened earlier this month in Tama Ward, Kawasaki, along the Odakyu Line.

A Tokyo metropolitan ordinance on outdoor advertising requires train operators to obtain permission from local governments along their lines if they wish to place ads on the outsides of trains.

Odakyu did not obtain such permission, however. It believed the cartoons on the train did not qualify as ads because the name of the museum and other such information was not written on the train, the company said.

However, the Tokyo metropolitan government insisted that patterns, designs and diagrams also fall under the category of ads and ordered Odakyu to take corrective action.

The Tokyo ordinance also stipulates the maximum area that can be used for an ad, and the Odakyu train exceeds this limit.

"We're deeply sorry for causing trouble, which resulted from our lack of awareness [of the ordinance]," an Odakyu spokesman said.

A spokesman for Fujiko Production, which designed the train, said: "We very much regret what has happened, given our efforts to design train cars that would delight the eye."