--- title: Japan Asks US to Stop Using Anime & Gaming IPs in... description: Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the US Embassy twice in June to formally request that the Trump administration stop using anime and gaming... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Japan Asks US to Stop Using Anime & Gaming IPs in Political Content | daily.dev og:description: Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the US Embassy twice in June to formally request that the Trump administration stop using anime and gaming... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ha84P6rpE.png og:image:alt: Japan Asks US to Stop Using Anime & Gaming IPs in Political Content og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Japan Asks US to Stop Using Anime & Gaming IPs in Political Content **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 2 min read · 67 upvotes · 8 comments ## Summary Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the US Embassy twice in June to formally request that the Trump administration stop using anime and gaming characters — including Pokémon, Naruto, and Mario — in political social media posts without rights holders' consent. The concern centers on reputational harm to these franchises. The Pokémon Company previously denied permitting a DHS mashup of Ash Ketchum footage with ICE raid clips, and the White House has also shared videos blending military footage with scenes from Wii Sports, Halo, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, prompting public objections from franchise owners and actors. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Did the Pokémon Company give permission for its characters to be used in US government social media posts? No. The Pokémon Company publicly denied permitting the DHS to use Ash Ketchum footage in a mashup with ICE raid clips. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also contacted the US Embassy twice in June to press the Trump administration to stop using Pokémon, Naruto, and Mario in political posts, citing reputational harm and lack of rights holders' consent. _Developers and creators tracking IP rights issues in digital media follow cases like these on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@documatic** · 12 upvotes > No matter your political affiliation this is a good move by Japan. These items are not fair use and should not be used by any political party. **@stevengraziano** · 3 upvotes > falls into parody and protected speech. **@endon98** · 3 upvotes > I mean, it makes sense. The goal of these companies is to make money, which means they need to appeal to as many demographics as possible. Treating border "enforcement" as a game of Pokemon is not a good look. **@byteoutlaw** · 2 upvotes > So Trump will listen to it? **@wyntikmowzickitnyw** · 1 upvotes > U.S. don't even own the IP, so why and how came they have the audacity to use Japanese medium to their American propaganda? American Government is weird huh? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [DHS to keep using game and pop culture imagery](https://daily.dev/posts/dhs-to-keep-using-game-and-pop-culture-imagery-iw19jyy2r) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Japan asks OpenAI to keep Sora 2’s hands off anime IP](https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-openai-to-keep-sora-2-s-hands-off-anime-ip-rkocvo93n) · The Register · 17 upvotes · 4 comments - [Nintendo refutes claims it had "any contact" with the Japanese government to lobby against genAI](https://daily.dev/posts/nintendo-refutes-claims-it-had-any-contact-with-the-japanese-government-to-lobby-against-genai-c85pbhgjf) · GamesIndustry.biz · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Japan Asks US to Stop Using Anime & Gaming IPs in Political Content","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe"},"datePublished":"2026-08-07T11:27:03.762Z","dateModified":"2026-08-07T11:27:23.867Z","description":"Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the US Embassy twice in June to formally request that the Trump administration stop using anime and gaming...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0a0a882aa8bfc381b333e177fee54c01?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0a0a882aa8bfc381b333e177fee54c01?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":8,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":67},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}],"keywords":"gaming","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Japan Asks US to Stop Using Anime & Gaming IPs in Political Content"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"No matter your political affiliation this is a good move by Japan. These items are not fair use and should not be used by any political party.","datePublished":"2026-08-07T18:57:55.942Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ha84P6rpE#c-nZ5t0Of0k","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mr U (Documatic)","url":"https://daily.dev/documatic","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14GhbmnObF755_tWGu3J4INlhcielRSd1QxYtwHHJWg=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"falls into parody and protected speech.","datePublished":"2026-08-08T19:23:28.713Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ha84P6rpE#c-IGuri2tZ4","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Steven Graziano","url":"https://daily.dev/stevengraziano","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLNesAhrzjr5YolGh1YpzkCr3DOFHsq7HvySBZAcqAX85vThAZaZQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I mean, it makes sense. The goal of these companies is to make money, which means they need to appeal to as many demographics as possible. Treating border “enforcement” as a game of Pokemon is not a good look.","datePublished":"2026-08-09T20:24:19.096Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ha84P6rpE#c-zKMZd3VPv","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Endon98","url":"https://daily.dev/endon98","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/67847029?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"So Trump will listen to it?","datePublished":"2026-08-08T17:11:49.852Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ha84P6rpE#c-lnrzSs26A","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob B. Bonde","url":"https://daily.dev/byteoutlaw","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--veTChHK7--/f_auto/v1733220070/avatars/avatar_5cQvIZKr5tDFDotVDjulg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"U.S. don’t even own the IP, so why and how came they have the audacity to use Japanese medium to their American propaganda? American Government is weird huh?","datePublished":"2026-08-10T13:53:57.134Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ha84P6rpE#c-K2mqrMoVB","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kit","url":"https://daily.dev/wyntikmowzickitnyw","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HDF4DXb9--/f_auto/v1786370154/avatars/avatar_YrdH1LaDX0HZ2sWNQ5qfa?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/japan-asks-us-to-stop-using-anime-gaming-ips-in-political-content-ha84p6rpe#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Did the Pokémon Company give permission for its characters to be used in US government social media posts?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No. The Pokémon Company publicly denied permitting the DHS to use Ash Ketchum footage in a mashup with ICE raid clips. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also contacted the US Embassy twice in June to press the Trump administration to stop using Pokémon, Naruto, and Mario in political posts, citing reputational harm and lack of rights holders' consent. Developers and creators tracking IP rights issues in digital media follow cases like these on daily.dev."}}]} ```