What’s the baka inaka design all about?
To fully appreciate the baka inaka design, you have to know a little bit about the area. Fukui is a small, rural prefecture, situated in the west of Japan.
Outside of the country, Fukui is not well known, and even within Japan, most Japanese people consider the area inaka – a rural backwater. Those that have heard of Fukui, usually only know about it for one thing: nuclear power.
Fukui’s Nuclear Legacy
There are currently 13 operational nuclear reactors in the prefecture (out of total of 55 in Japan), making Fukui Japan’s biggest supplier of nuclear energy. This fact, along with a string of minor nuclear accidents has put Fukui in the national and occasionally international news.
To mark Fukui’s nuclear heritage, an image of a nuclear power plant’s cooling tower was incorporated into the design. The cloud of steam that is billowing from the tower is not just hot air – this also forms the outline shape of Fukui prefecture, and the red circle of course symbolises Japan’s national flag.
The large Japanese characters (kanji) read Fukui, and the small kanji read Nihon – which means Japan.
