The Campaign

“No strings attached equality”: to bring to life equality for transgender individuals. There shouldn’t be any limitations to freedom, including orientation or gender. The core idea of Buddhism is that everything is equal. As a Buddhist university, Ryukoku is naturally placed to highlight the issue with sensitivity, fairness, and good grace.

Creative Execution

Rather than explain the issue in a standard awareness-based format, we dipped into Japan’s long tradition of folk tales, as well as those from all around the world, as a universal language by which important ideas can be told in inventive and memorable ways. We decided B1 posters were the best medium to display this new tale. We had them professionally printed to ensure top quality. We used genderspecific icons to create interest.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

During Open Campus day on March 20, 2016, more than 2,000 people visited the University, where the posters were prominently displayed in both English and Japanese. For some visitors, this was the first time they had been confronted with the issue. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Visitors expressed their solidarity with the University's support of transgender equality, and praised the administration for its stance on the issue.

Our strategy was simple: to get as many people as possible to look at our posters and read our story. The goal was to make them aware of the issue and as a result discuss it with friends and family.