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Interest
Statue Sites Picked for One Piece Charity Statues in Kumamoto

posted on by Lynzee Loveridge

Last year, Kumamoto native and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda gifted the earthquake stricken Kumamoto Prefecture 800 million yen (US$8 million). Kumamoto governor Ikuo Kabashima announced in June that the government will commemorate Eiichiro Oda's outreach by placing bronze statues of the Straw Hat Pirates throughout in sightseeing locations. Some of the funding Oda donated went towards creating the statues.

Kumamoto's government announced the locations for the eight statues on April 17. Four statues will go up this year followed the another four next year. The government selected spots in Mashiki City and the village of Minamiaso. Mashiki suffered considerable damage from the 2016 earthquake. At least 60% of homes in the city were half or fully destroyed.

Luffy himself was placed in front of the Kumamoto prefectural government office in Chūō-ku in November. The government officials had a difficult time deciding where to place each of the eight statues as all 31 cities in Kumamoto vied for the opportunity and, hopefully, a subsequent increase in tourism.

The final selected statue sites are:

  1. Zoro in Otsu Central Park in Ozu
  2. Nami at the Tawarayama Village of Exchange Center Moe in Nishihara Village
  3. Usopp at the Aso Railway Station in Aso
  4. Sanji at Minateras Center for Exchange and Information in Mashiki
  5. Chopper at the Kumamoto City Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Kumamoto City
  6. Nico Robin at the Tokai University Aso School Building in Minamiaso Village
  7. Franky at the Takamori Railway Station in Takamori
  8. Brook at Friendship Square in Kinokura

This year's four statues are estimated to cost about 10 million yen to produce (US$89,000). Project organizers will announce which characters will be selected on April 19. Oda will supervise the statue design.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web (中里顕) via Yara-on!


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