Since I moved to Japan I’ve begun to notice various instances of copyright infringement in ads, store windows, and various products. The convenient store near my job uses a poorly drawn “colonel” to advertise their chicken and the barber shop down the street has Mickey Mouse in the window for no reason. There just isn’t as tight a hold on improper intellectual property usage here, and so you will often see Mario used as the logo for video game stores that opened around the big Famicom boom in the 80’s.
This game-shop in a Nakano shopping arcade took the trend a step further and copped the plumber’s name for their store “Big Mario (ma-ri-o is written in Katakana).” Nice! Even though the shop sells more than just Nintendo-goods, the name harkens back to when “playing Nintendo,” or even “playing Mario,” could mean gaming of any kind. Ahh the memories.