Artist's commentary
(Old Doodle)Reisen Udongein Mynumber
I've been quite busy recently and haven't had the chance to work on new creations. Therefore, I'm sharing a doodle I drew a few years ago and posted on Pixiv.
https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/79150206
This is an adorable illustration of Reisen-chan, but most of you might be wondering, "What is 'My Number'?" and "Who is the rabbit in the background?" My Number is the nickname for Japan's Individual Number system, which was introduced in 2015. It's similar to the Social Security Number in the United States. Before its introduction, Japan assigned different numbers to individuals for each administrative system like pension and residency registration, which was inefficient. Hence, a unified number system was introduced, though, confusingly, the previous numbers like the pension number continue to exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Number
While Japan is known for its advanced technology, particularly in traditional hardware and mechanical engineering like gasoline cars, high-speed rail, and robots, it has often been criticized for being behind in software and digitization, still relying on things like fax machines. This numbering system was also somewhat late in its introduction compared to other developed nations. The vanguard of digital and tech advancement in East Asia is held by Taiwan and South Korea. Mainland China could also be considered advanced, but from a geopolitical standpoint, it is difficult for Western countries to unreservedly praise it.
Another public image of Japan is the abundance of mascot characters. Cute mascots are everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7f-ouRArEc
The rabbit in this illustration is "MyNa-chan," the mascot character created by the Japanese government for the My Number system. Although Japan's government debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 200%, making it the worst in the world, the Japanese government seems to spare no expense in creating mascots (and personally, I support their attitude in doing so). MyNa-chan's character is set as "a white rabbit fairy who has lived in Japan since ancient times," with the same motif as "The White Hare of Inaba," similar to Tewi Inaba. Whether MyNa-chan will bring happiness to Japan as Tewi's ability suggests, only the god knows.
https://www.digital.go.jp/policies/mynumber_logo
Edit : Inserted line breaks.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/19c2tao/comment/kivs8vh/