Tokyo, 7 March, /AJMEDIA
Superhero Batman’s hometown Gotham City has for the first time concluded a friendship city agreement with Fukuyama, a castle town in western Japan, as the fictional and real cities share a connection — their love for bats.
The unique agreement was struck in late February, just before the Warner Bros. movie “The Batman” comes out on Friday in Japan, and as Fukuyama celebrates the 400th year of its castle’s history.
The city in Hiroshima Prefecture, known for its emblem resembling a flying bat, had proposed the friendship accord to the entertainment company’s Japan unit, Warner Bros. Japan LLC, as a newly renovated Fukuyama Castle opens to the public in August.
Known globally through comics and movies, Batman is a billionaire playboy by day and a crime-busting hero by night. Donning a bat costume to fight for justice in the ever crime-riddled city, he swoops into Gotham whenever its distressed people call him by lighting up the sky with a “Bat-Signal.”
Fukuyama’s name and emblem are derived from Bat Mountain, an old name of the hill on which its castle rests.
With the bat symbolizing luck in China, by which Japanese culture has been much influenced, the city created its name by combining the Chinese characters for “luck” pronounced “fuku” in Japanese and “mountain,” or “yama.”
The design of the city emblem launched in 1917 was based on the Chinese character for “mountain” being modified to look like a flying bat.
“Batman is a popular franchise all over the world. It is an honor that a local city in Japan is connected to it,” said Shingo Watanabe, who oversees projects at the city hall to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Fukuyama Castle’s founding.
To celebrate the tie between the two cities, Fukuyama is implementing various projects this month including giving out commemorative stickers and shining a “Bat Signal” on a building.
There are also visual images marking the friendship agreement with one saying, “Saving cities, connecting histories” as a shadowy Batman stands in front of a sun-set Fukuyama and its castle.
