Hiroshima wants Pokemon Go players to go away
Officials from the Japanese city worry the search for Pikachu could disrupt an annual ceremony remembering victims of the first atomic bomb.
Add Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to the growing list of inappropriate Pokemon Go-playing venues that includes the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The park commemorates the dropping of the first atomic bomb at the end of World War II, and city officials are hoping to avoid Poke-scavengers wandering through the annual ceremony to remember bombing victims on August 6.
The Associated Press reports that officials asked the game's developer, Niantic, to delete Pokestops and other virtual sites before the ceremony date, but the company told the AP it would not make any discussions with a third party public.
Elsewhere in Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) also this week asked Niantic to remove all Pokemon from zones affected by the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown to keep players from wandering into dangerous areas. Previously, an organization in Bosnia issued an alert reminding Pokemon Go players not to venture into minefields.
Nintendo's augmented-reality game has become a worldwide megahit, scoring over 75 million downloads in less than a month. The obsession has spread to pretty much every corner of the globe, leading to some awkward moments for Poke-players wandering onto an Indonesian military base or off a cliff, among other fails.
The phenomenon is so widespread it's also being used to draw attention to other important happenings, like the civil war in Syria and the US presidential election, with candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton name-checking the game on the campaign trail.