[Taro Toporific]

Seal spotted in Saitama Sunday sparks sensation
A seal spotted in the Nakagawa river in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, on Sunday, lured local people, including high school students on their way to class, to the riverbank.... The group also suggested the seal be named as "Naka-chan" after the river, and that it be registered as a "resident of Saitama Prefecture."
Another seal, or is it Tama-chan?

South Korean Government Gives Out First Robot ID/Registration Card
25july2006 / BotPop.com
The Korean government has awarded a robot registration card to Taekwon V, a fictional character in a popular animated series of the same name. First released in July 24, 1976, Taekwon is a pop icon in South Korea and turned thirty years old this past Monday....

YouTube - Taekwon V vs. Tama-chan's Navy
Korean cartoon robot Taekwon V takes on an army of Japanese stereotypes in a battle for control of Dokdo.

[Kuang_Grade]

I was watching Monday's Fuji-TV news-program for J folks in the US and the second story (after a piece on some Yahoo Auctions scammer that was arrested...must have been a slow weekend for news) was that Naka-Chan was apparently found dead over the weekend. The piece was several minutes long and showed people crying, and kids yelling goodbye as Naka's body was removed from the river. I lack pretty much any J language skills, so I wasn't able to figure out what the cause of death was or if it was even known at this stage.

[GuyJean]

I wasn't able to figure out what the cause of death was or if it was even known at this stage.

They don't know yet; they're 'investigating' the cause..

GJ

[Kuang_Grade]

Fuji-TV had one of those end of year news segment about the notable people who passed away during the year, where they show the person on screen for about 3 seconds before moving on to the next one...Naka-Chan was one of the noted passings they mentioned.