Sana'a
Already banned in Japan!
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Japan bars Hitler as pinball machine name
Associated Press ^ | Oct. 20, 2004
Posted on 10/21/2004, 1:11:39 PM by Area Freeper
Japan's patent office has blocked a company from making "pachinko" pinball machines named after Adolf Hitler, Moses and other historical figures, officials said Wednesday.
Fuji Shoji Co., based in Osaka, submitted the names of 34 well-known people, including the Wright Brothers and Tchaikovsky, for trademarks on their garish, upright pinball machines.
The Patent Office rejected the applications in May, Fuji said, but word of the decision was first publicized in Japan this week.
The office is barred from granting trademarks that may disrupt public order and morals, a patent official said. He refused to provide further details.
Kyodo News agency also quoted an unidentified official as saying that using the Nazi dictator's name as a trademark could violate the spirit of Japan's pacifist postwar constitution.
Nobuhide Tonaka, a spokesman for Fuji, said the names were chosen at random from the world's "famous people" and that no offense was intended. "But we failed to pay close consideration, and we regret that very much," he said.
Brightly lit pachinko parlors are everywhere in Japan, clustered around city train stations or along country roads. The games often feature panels illustrated with scantily clad female comic book characters or action heroes. Fuji has produced machines with motifs from the movie Ghostbusters and the TV series Thunderbirds.
General knowledge of the Holocaust is limited in Japan.
