HIGASHI-OMI, Shiga Prefecture--A boy who has long protected children in Japan, South Korea, India, Nepal and elsewhere from traffic accidents celebrated his 40th birthday this year.
HIGASHI-OMI, Shiga Prefecture--A boy who has long protected children in Japan, South Korea, India, Nepal and elsewhere from traffic accidents celebrated his 40th birthday this year.
A life-size cut-out of a child, who appears to be about to run out into the road, designed to warn drivers, first appeared in the city of Higashi-Omi, Shiga Prefecture, in June 1973.
During the period of Japan's high economic growth from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, the number of traffic accidents soared in tandem with a sharp increase in vehicles, creating the phrase "kotsu senso" (traffic war).
In 1970, statics show that 16,765 people were killed in traffic accidents across the country.
Amid that backdrop, the rustic signboard, known as the "Tobidashi-boya" (Dashing-out boy) or the "Tobidashi boy," was invented to keep kids safe from vehicles.
Buoyed by a recent demand for retro products, the sign has become a popular item among people nostalgic for the Showa Era (1926-1989).
"I am happy that the boy has long been loved by many people," said the father of the Tobidashi boy, Yasuhei Hisada. "I will continue to make the signboard with all my heart, so that it can protect as many children as possible."
Hisada, 72, runs signboard producing firm Hisada Kogei together with his 64-year-old wife and his eldest son, 40.
Cutting out the forms from wooden boards and carefully painting them one by one, Hisada has been hand-crafting the Tobidashi boy in his 80-square-meter workshop in the city for decades.
Three heads tall, the round-faced Tobidashi boy with black eyes wears a red long-sleeved T-shirt and orange pants. Its design is almost the same as that of the original one from the Showa Era.
The first Tobidashi boy came about when the local council for social welfare asked Hisada to produce a signboard to prevent fatal accidents to children.
Seeking a cue from the streets, Hisada drove around the city until he found a life-size dummy of a child standing at an intersection. The mannequin, designed to hold flags used by children when crossing streets, gave him the idea of making the wooden silhouette.
"I thought we could raise drivers' caution with less expense if we set up signboards resembling children who are running in front of cars," Hisada said.
Hisada's first Tobidashi boy was placed at an intersection in front of a shrine in the center of Higashi-Omi, which was called Yokaichi at that time. Over the past 40 years he has produced more than 10,000 Tobidashi signboards.
Local parent-teacher associations, residents' associations and other organizations in Shiga Prefecture also began making their own original Tobidashi boys, which were placed throughout the prefecture's school zones.
Such handmade Tobidashi boys spread mainly in the Kansai region, including Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures, and to date various Tobidashi signboards in the shape of a girl, an old person, a ninja and other figures have been made. Similar products have become available at some hardware stores.
Aficionados of the Tobidashi boy have even erected the signboards in foreign countries, including South Korea, India, Nepal and Vanuatu in the South Pacific.
While Hisada calls the signboard "Tobita-kun" or "Tobidashi Tobita," people have also called it "Tobidashi-ningyo" (Dashing-out doll), "Tobidashi-kozo" (Dashing-out nipper) or other names.
But since illustrator Jun Miura dubbed it Tobidashi-boya, the nickname has been broadly accepted.
Miura also introduced Shiga Prefecture as a sanctuary of the Tobidashi boy in TV programs and on other occasions. He also named Hisada's original Tobidashi signboard after the first Shinkansen bullet train, called the "0 series." Thanks to Miura's publicity, the signboard gained a national spotlight.
Hisada soon started to receive orders from across Japan, and tourists began visiting his workshop.
"The attraction of Hisada's original Tobidashi boy is its Showa Era character that has not changed for 40 years," said a Tobidashi signboard fan, Junichi Kawamura, a character goods creator living in Higashi-Omi.
"Standing exposed to the elements, he has been sacrificing himself to protect children. His appearance causes people to feel melancholy," said Kawamura, 42, who became interested in the Tobidashi boy five years ago.
Far from its hometown Higashi-Omi, a Tobidashi boy currently looks after a liquor shop in Fukushima Prefecture, as if it is hoping children, who left the prefecture after the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011 triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, will return there someday.
In March last year, Koji Arashi, 59, placed a Tobidashi signboard in front of his home in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, which also doubles as his liquor shop.
Following the onset of the nuclear disaster, the area around Arashi's store, located 24 kilometers from the crippled plant, was designated as an "indoor evacuation zone."
While most of his neighbors evacuated from the city, Arashi decided to remain in Minami-Soma together with his wife, as well as his second daughter and her husband. Arashi opened his shop even on the day following the earthquake.
Arashi was presented with the signboard by Atsushi Kadota, a farmer coming to the city to participate in volunteer activities from Ritto, Shiga Prefecture.
Kadota, 37, suggested that Arashi set up the Tobidashi boy in front of the shop as a symbol to link the two prefectures.
There used to be 4,000 elementary school students in Minami-Soma, but the number has dropped by half since the disaster.
"To be honest, I hope children will return here soon," said Arashi. "But I will not be able to ask them to return until anxieties over radiation exposure settle."
Last September, Arashi's second daughter gave birth to a daughter. Though Arashi and his family debated whether to raise the baby outside the prefecture, they eventually decided to bring her up in the city.
Arashi's Tobidashi boy currently stands inside the glass door.
"I would feel sorry if it got rain-sodden and was scribbled on," Arashi explained.
He added that he hoped Tobidashi signboards would be erected in front of houses in the city to show there were children there.