The archive · Public & Social · Marketing decision · 2024-2025
Tokyo names 'nameless housework' with Baki manga — Grand Prix PR win
Tokyo crowdsourced names for invisible chores and paired them with Baki manga — 550K views in a month, Grand Prix.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government · Scope Inc.
What it had to solve
Tokyo wanted to close the gap in how much 'nameless housework' — shampoo refills, trash-bag changes — men and women actually do, but government messages rarely reach men.
How it works
In 2023 Tokyo surveyed 5,000 residents and found a large perception gap: men said they handled or shared 'nameless housework' — refilling toilet paper, replacing shampoo, setting the next trash bag — while about 75% of women said they did those tasks themselves. The gap was the problem Tokyo chose to attack.
The Bureau of Lifestyle and Culture ran a public contest in summer 2024 asking residents for slogans and invented names for these chores, collecting 2,027 entries. Judges picked winners including the catchphrase 'Small awareness, big bonds' (小さな気づきが 大きなきずなに).
To reach its core target of men, Tokyo paired the winning words with the fighting manga Baki: a video shows the series' strongest father, Yujiro Hanma, lecturing his son Baki that throwing out trash includes gathering it and setting up the next bag. The deadpan mismatch between macho manga and domestic chores made the message spread.
The video drew about 550,000 views in its first month. In February 2025 Tokyo's second 'Communications That Reach People' award gave it the Grand Prix out of 73 in-house public relations entries, with Governor Yuriko Koike presenting the trophy.
Why it lands
- The campaign started from survey data that exposed a specific gap, so the creative had a defined target.
- Crowdsourcing slogans gave residents ownership of the message instead of top-down government copy.
- Baki's father-son story made housework about care and respect, not nagging.
- The absurd clash between brutal fighting manga and trivial chores generated shareable attention.
What it did
550,000 video views in about a month and a Grand Prix in Tokyo's second Communications Award (73 entries), plus national media coverage of the odd pairing.
What you can take
To change a hard-to-reach group's behavior, make the invisible visible, borrow a medium that group already loves, and let the public supply the language.
Since then
The Baki collaboration video was scheduled to end on March 31, 2025, but the campaign continued: Tokyo later released another video using a second winning slogan, 'From unknown matters to my own matters,' and kept a dedicated site with winning slogans, naming ideas, and a ranking of chores people want done. The Grand Prix made 'nameless housework' a recognized phrase in Japanese public debate.
Sources
- Tokyo's 'Communications That Reach People' Grand Prix goes to the Baki-collaboration 'Nameless Housework' campaign
- Tokyo teams up with Baki for 'Nameless Housework' — why?
- Fighting manga Baki collab: winning catchphrases for 'Nameless Housework' chosen
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