If you live in Japan, are a cat lover, and have a scooter that’s 50 cc’s or less, boy, do I have the license plate frame for you.
Custom license plates usually use an alpha-numeric approach to your unique plates, using whatever’s on a standard keyboard. But, if you live in Japan, this Japanese Prefecture known for its friendliness to cat culture thanks to its name, is issuing a special set of scooter plates that uses cat paw prints where normally a period would suffice. As per Sora News 24 on their report on this most unique set of plates earlier yesterday (Sept. 26, 2018) the Shunan-Shi prefecture or Shu-Nyan City as they like to be called, is behind this purr-fect plate initiative.
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As mentioned in the article, Nyan is heavily associated with a cat’s meow in Japan so this city is using that bit of onomatopoeia to its fullest, really making a tourist push to get people into the city where they can literally become “like cats.” These special plates are part of that initiative.
The plates are only meant for small scooters, popular in this part of Japan, and feature a cat’s head on the top. To keep these plates as exclusive as possible and to get as many people in their prefecture to scoop these up, only 400 of these special plates will be issued, replacing their old number plates. So, it’s not really custom, it’s just that where there usually is a period, there’s a paw print. If it’s any consolation, the plates are supposedly free to get, you just have to fill out paperwork.
In California, the only special character you can get is on Kids plates including a hand, heart, star or plus sign. Some plates have special ocean backgrounds, have palm trees on the side, or the ones supporting museums have snoopy dancing on one custom plate, so our plates aren’t that boring. I’m sure other states have interesting variants on their plates as well.
MAY 2014: @California Museum Month, @Snoopy License Plate funds to go to museums. | http://t.co/pQVM8d070d pic.twitter.com/2YecwIGwcS
— Ventura County (@ventura101) May 24, 2014
But cat prints on plates? Only Japan can pull that off.
