Tama-chan a Yokohama resident

[thomas]

Problems with your residence permit? Consider marrying a sealion!

Tama-chan to be registered as Yokohama "resident"

A ward office in Yokohama city on Thursday said it will issue a "resident" registry card to Tama-chan, the seal that has been showing up along the banks of the Katabira River in the city.

The seal was first sighted last August in the Tama River, which borders Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures, prompting people to call it Tama-chan. It was later seen in the Tsurumi River and then in the Katabira River in September.

The city's Nishi Ward office said the action comes in response to calls from many residents who say the seal "is more or less like a fellow ward resident."

=> http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...47&display=all

[thomas]

[thomas]

It's official now:

Tama-chan becomes Yokohama resident named Tamao Nishi

A ward office in Yokohama city on Wednesday registered "Tama-chan," the seal that has been showing up along the banks of the Katabira River in the city, as a resident named Tamao Nishi, local officials said.

The office issued a resident registry card to the animal, which says its address is on the bank of Katabira River in Yokohama's Nishi Ward and the location of its family registration is the Bering Sea.

=> http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=1&id=249165



Tama-chan made it into the Japan Times. Even Arudou Debito picked up the topic, the Yokohama city fathers will soon pray they had never touched upon that topic, lolol!

Kawaii sea lion back in spotlight
Foreigners flip over Tama-chan's new status

=> http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20030211zg.htm