Japan has a mascot for almost everything, and many local organizations take their colorful character's popularity ranking rather seriously. In 2018, however, they took it a little too seriously.An annual poll is held nationwide to pick the most popular "yuru kyara" regional mascot, but this year's contest was hit by controversy after some local governments were found to have engaged in vote-rigging, when they drafted in employees to cast extra ballots.After the event's organizers were forced to investigate and remove ballots suspected of being cast through systematic voting campaigns, Kapar…READ FULL ARTICLE
