It looks as if the jig may be up for Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency:

An opinion poll conducted by NHK of Japan, found that nearly half of those responding were against the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s plan to allow the restart of shut down nuclear reactors after safety checks. Only 19% of responders approved of the plan, 32% were undecided, and 45% were against it.

But PR life must go on for other Japanese industries; and so a refrigerator manufacturer, having the misfortune to be called “Fukushima Industries,” decided it was time to rehabilitate its brand.

To inject what they thought would be just the right note of optimistic warm-and-fuzzy, the company chose a smiling (and presumably, unspoiled) egg wearing big red shoes and angel wings; and they named him “Fukupy.”

You heard that right: “Fukupy.”

The small, egg-shaped mascot greets visitors to the company website with the cheery message: “”I’m Fukuppy. I think I’m kind, with a strong sense of justice, but people say I’m a little bit scatterbrained.”

The unfortunate moniker works in Japanese by contracting the company name and combining it with the word for “happy.” All this gets lost in translation, of course, leaving English speakers howling.

The company reportedly is going back to the drawing board with this one.

We really wish they would leave it alone…or better still, hand it off to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency; because Fukuppy says it all.