School is Re-named After Link to Erotic Games is Discovered

The mayor of a Japanese town has announced that a school under construction will be re-named after it’s been revealed to have the same name as an adult game series

You would think that naming a new elementary school after a region’s money-making crop would make sense, but officials in Japan have been left red-faced after they discovered they came up with one that is already held by a series of adult videogames. The school, which is seen here – and is still currently under construction – in the prefecture that happens to be the largest cherry producer in the country, was originally going to be named Sakuranbo Shougakkou (“Cherry Elementary School”). You can probably see how this went somewhere horrible rather quickly.

Until earlier this week, the official name of the school was going to be Higashine Shiritsu Sakuranbo Shougakkou (“Higashine Municipal Cherry Elementary School”), and it turns out there is a series of Dojin games (which are sort of like fan-fiction versions of games) that happens to be called Shiritsu Sakuranbo Shougakkou.

According to Kotaku, which first broke the story here in the West, “Put the school’s name さくらんぼ小学校 in Google, and there are links to questionable illustrations of underage children right up there at the top.”

School officials were unaware of the games’ existence until an anonymous tipster sent in an email. When parents initially expressed concerns, the city’s mayor refused to change the institution’s name, claiming, “If we change the name, that will justify this adult world all the more.”

Now, just a few days later, the mayor has changed his stance and announced that the school’s name will be changing before it opens this Spring (which is the start of the Japanese school year). I get why the mayor didn’t want to back down to what he believed was a disturbing fringe culture on the Web, but this is probably the best thing he can do in this tough situation. Exactly what the school’s new title will be remains to be determined, but it’ll probably be a good idea to do a thorough web search on any names that sound good before a final decision is made.

Source: Kotaku