Travellers' Checks | Only in Japan: tourism board appoints 120,000-tonne sea monster brand ambassador

Here’s an improbable concept for a regional tourism campaign: create a truly hideous sea monster – a walking mutation of three local seafood delicacies – and name it after a popular sashimi and rice dish, in the hope that it will somehow attract foreign visitors.

Meet the mighty Kaisendon – 120,000 distinctly unappetising tons of puffer fish, crab and octopus body parts, and the new tourism ambassador for the Kanmon Straits. Separating Japan’s main island of Honshu and the smaller Kyushu, this turbulent body of water is known for its swift and variable tidal currents, one of which catches the marauding Kaisendon off-guard and carries him away at the end of a new English-language video.

“Straits with such a fast flow,” announces the closing slogan, following a polite round of applause from bemused locals. “Why do not you come and see?” And, despite (or perhaps because of) the uniquely Japanese deployment of a repulsive 229-metre-tall sea monster to sell seafood and promote scenic ferry trips, you might just ask yourself the same question.