Almost every prefecture, every city, every national business has a mascot of some form that communicates the functions of the organization to the public. The intent is nearly always the same: to make us feel positive in our dealings with them, to make it feel less burdensome to pay taxes, to counterbalance what we know to be their shortcomings.

How else can we explain this image from TEPCO, the power company whose three nuclear reactors went into meltdown in 2011, which are actively dumping radiated water into the Pacific Ocean. https://www.tepco.co.jp/shared_files/images/top/img_index-j_personal_service02.jpg