Companies in Japan fool around on April 1st

Three Japanese companies with similar names decided to celebrate April Fools’ Day on Friday with a few jokes.

Nissan Motor released a breaking news video on its website on April 1st. It says a giant flying object created by Nissan and Nissin Foods had made an unexpected landing at commerce firm Nissen. Their similar-sounding names inspired the video.

Nissan spokesperson Shotaro Ogawa says his company wants to grab the attention of young adults…a generation losing interest in car ownership.

On April Fools’ Day last year, Ogawa tweeted that Nissan had changed its name to Nissen, a mail-order and online shopping company. His tweet was a hit. Followers said it made them laugh.

The companies are even planning a special event this year. They ended up with a play on the name of one of Nissin’s instant-noodle products: “USO,” which means “joke” in Japanese. The item is known as “UFO” during the other 364 days of the year.

Nissan, Nissin and Nissen also cooperated on creating a T-shirt.

Ogawa says he hopes people will think well of a company that can do such a silly thing on this particular day. He added that the stunt could make consumers feel a bit closer to Nissan.

Source and image: NHK