Because of last year’s great Kumamoto earthquake, the prefecture’s mascot, Kumamon, has been teaming up with one of its most famous sons, One Piece mangaka, Eiichiro Oda, to raise awareness for the plight of some of the prefecture’s residents. In celebration of One Piece’s 20th anniversary, Kumamon has recently headed to the headquarters of Shonen Jump in Tokyo. There, the bear mascot met with some of the magazine’s staff. He also showed the magazine some love for helping Kumamoto out in their toughest of times.

As expected, the magazine’s staff, who’ve worked on manga such as My Hero Academia and Shokugeki no Soma, were happy to see him. He even exchanged business cards with the staff, including the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Hiroyuki Nakano.

And with Kumamon’s visit to Jump HQ, they revealed that the ONE PIECE Kumamoto Reconstruction Project will also continue. Nakano also told the iconic mascot that if he asks Oda for some help, there’s no way he will refuse. After all, the mangaka has already shown plenty of love for his home prefecture in many ways.

As for the restoration project itself, the magazine’s official website, as well as the One Piece website, will announce more details in the future. Hang in there Kumamoto!

Source: Comic Natalie