Street Fighter characters being used in police recruitment in Japan

The Osaka Prefectural Police department is using Street Fighter characters in a new recruitment drive for cyber-crime investigators.

Mascots from Capcom’s fighting game series, which has sold over 42 million units since debuting in 1987, will be featured on 3,000 flyers set to be distributed to members of the public, and on 1,000 poster adverts in police stations, police boxes and train stations beginning today.

Osaka-based Capcom said: “Selected for the brand’s powerful image, its popularity among a broad range of age groups, and the affinity that esports has with cyberspace, the characters will be featured in investigator recruiting advertisements with the aim of boosting awareness of and the number of investigators specializing in cyber-crime—a field that has seen a conspicuous rise in the number of incidents in recent years.”

Capcom has worked with the Osaka Prefectural Police and police in neighbouring prefectures on crime prevention awareness campaigns since 2013.

Mega Man was utilised for a cyber-crime prevention campaign in 2018, while Monster Hunter was used for vehicle-related crime awareness campaigns in 2016 and 2017.

Ryozo Tsujimoto, head of the Capcom’s consumer games development division 2, recently told VGC the publisher is “not giving up” on the idea of creating new original game series, despite its recent focus on core franchises Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Monster Hunter.