Governor promises “devil” bears in redesign.

Akita, located in Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region, is one of the country’s more rural prefectures. While its human population might not be very big, though, Akita has one of Japan’s larger bear populations.

So among the public awareness posters the prefectural government has recently designed is one about bears, which contains some useful and important pieces of advice. There’s a potential problem, though, with the artwork the posters use to illustrate their points: the bears are adorable.

“Be careful of bears” reads the large-font text at the top of the poster, but bear in the drawing doesn’t look intimidating in the slightest. With its head tilted, ears standing up,…