Bandai Namco revealed a tourism promotion collaboration with the Takatsuki City Tourist Association that has appointed Yayoi Takatsuki from The Idolmaster as its ambassador. The character will also help promote a restaurant chain named Yayoiken.
Officials from the Osaka Prefecture city will hold an event celebrating the appointment on January 20, 2022. It will take place at Ama Site Park, known for hosting relics from the historical Yayoi period. The city will also hold stamp campaigns and have merchandise shops selling items related to the character.
Takatsuki City is also home to a branch of the Yayoiken restaurant chain. Due to the name coincidence, the branch saw an influx of visitors whenever an event related to the character occurred. Fans of Yayoi Takatsuki would celebrate her birthday at the restaurant every year on March 25. Bandai Namco and Yayoiken will announce more details on the upcoming collaboration in early March 2022.
Yayoi Takatsuki is one of the characters that have existed ever since the first Idolmaster game launched on arcades in 2005. However, her name being shared with the Yayoiken restaurant and Takatsuki City was a coincidence. In a 2015 interview, the series producer Yozo Sakagami revealed that Namco named the first Idolmaster characters after Japanese warships.
The latest console title in the series, The Idolmaster: Starlit Season, is immediately available on PlayStation 4 and PC in Japan and Asia. Yayoi Takatsuki is one of the 29 idols available in the base game. Bandai Namco has been releasing DLC sets that add more idols into the game, such as Kaede Takagaki and Kotoha Tanaka.
