Godzilla Destroys Tokyo on Screen. Shinjuku Makes Him a Tourism Ambassador.

A monster with an unusual civic résumé.

Godzilla's cinematic relationship with Tokyo had involved rather a lot of property damage.

On Thursday, 9 April 2015, Shinjuku ward found a different use for the monster: attracting visitors.

A giant Godzilla head had been installed on the new Shinjuku Toho Building in Kabukicho, ahead of the building's opening later that month. Shinjuku marked the occasion by issuing Godzilla a special residency certificate and appointing the character Shinjuku Tourism Ambassador.

Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi attended the ceremony. An actor in a Godzilla suit appeared too, but a Toho executive accepted the certificate because the costume's claws could not manage the paperwork.

Japanese reporting supplied an administrative clarification: Godzilla would not owe resident tax, because Godzilla was not a person.

That is also the limit of the residency claim. The special certificate was ceremonial; Godzilla had not acquired ordinary legal residence or Japanese citizenship.

The appointment was a neat reversal of the character's screen history. Godzilla had destroyed Shinjuku buildings in films. Now the ward wanted the same famous monster to draw people into the district.

Yoshizumi referred to a belief that places Godzilla destroyed on screen subsequently prospered and suggested Kabukicho as a setting for a future attack. Toho's representative said no such film decision had been made.

No actual destruction was required for the new role.

The documented absurdity is sufficient: a fictional monster known for demolishing parts of Tokyo received official recognition from one Tokyo ward as a promoter of local tourism.