FukuFuku Map, Sunao Katabuchi’s animated short for Fukushima Prefecture, won the Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner’s Award at the 15th Visual Tourism Award on September 29. The recognition belongs to a 10-minute, 53-second destination film, not a new television season or feature-length project.
The win is part of Visual EXPO by BRANDED SHORTS. The event’s official English program calls the category the 15th Visual Tourism Award, and the nominee announcement said five finalists were selected from 654 submissions. The awards ceremony took place at Akasaka Intercity Conference in Tokyo.
A one-day trip through Fukushima
The film follows Sophie, a French philosopher visiting Fukushima for a friend’s wedding. It is her first trip there, and she cannot speak the local language. After losing the map she planned to use, she is guided by a mysterious “friend” and another map into a trip without a fixed destination. The detours bring her into contact with local landscapes and traditions carried on by the people she meets. By the end of the journey, she finds words to share with the friend she is going to see again.
The illustrated map is part of the story rather than a guide layered over it: Sophie’s missed turns become the reason she encounters new places and people. The film’s short runtime keeps the focus on that single visit, with the map and the people she meets shaping the route together.
Made for a Fukushima map project
Katabuchi directed and wrote the film; Fumiyo Kouno created the character concept, and Kotringo composed the music. CONTRAIL animated it, while Fukushima Prefecture is credited as producer and copyright holder. BRANDED SHORTS lists the prefecture as client, Yamakawa Printing as agency and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation as the production company. The special project was made for the Fukushima Map Friends Association, which promotes the prefecture’s illustrated map.
The Japanese version was released on March 24. Fukushima Prefecture posted an English-subtitled version, titled FukuFuku Map, to its official YouTube channel on September 1, after overseas viewers asked for subtitles. In that announcement, the prefecture said the Japanese original had passed seven million combined views across YouTube and social media since March. That is the cumulative figure reported at the time, not a current view count.
What the award recognizes
The organizers describe the Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner’s Award as recognizing tourism-promotion works for creativity, promotional impact and topicality. FukuFuku Map was commissioned to promote an illustrated Fukushima map project, so the award recognizes the short in that destination-film context. Its 10:53 runtime keeps that tourism message inside a single character-led story.
