I just read the history of Nakapi the tiger, a mischievous tiger mascot who helped revive the small Japanese fishing town of Kamaishi. https://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/72813

Nakapi, an unofficial mascot for the small rugby club, the Kamaishi Sea Waves, was created by a local pharmacist in 2009, hoping the character would attract youngsters and liven up the dwindling, aging crowd at the low-level team’s matches.

In 2011 the town was wiped out by a tsunami, killing 1,000 of the 30,000 residents. To give people hope, it was decided the town would campaign to be one of the hosts for the Rugby World Cup in 2019. Nakapi was deployed to make the campaign less sombre.

Over 100 local people have performed as Nakapi in the devastated town, including students, city hall staff, and the players themselves (if they’re not too big to squeeze into the costume). Wearing the costume made them less depressed after the tsunami, and cheered crowds up.

Kamaishi eventually hosted the Fiji vs Uruguay rugby World Cup match in September 2019 and 16,000 fans came. Nakapi, and his sister, Nakarin, were there to celebrate.