“My LA Pictogram” Contest
Official Rules
NO PURCHASE REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.
- ELIGIBILITY: The “My LA Pictogram” Contest (the “Contest”) is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia who are students enrolled in one of grades 1 through 12. Employees of JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles and Yoshimoto Entertainment USA, Inc. or other companies associated with the promotion of the Contest, as well as the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings, and children, regardless of where they reside) and household members of each such employee are not eligible. The Contest is subject to federal, state, local laws, and is void where prohibited.
- ORGANIZER: The Contest is presented by JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles (the “Organizer”). It is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Instagram, X or any other social media platforms. You understand that you are not interacting with Facebook, Instagram, X or other social platforms. By participating in any Contest or promotion run by the Organizer, you release Facebook, Instagram, X and other social platforms and their affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims or cause of action arising out of participation in the Contest.
- AGREEMENT TO OFFICIAL RULES: Participation in the Contest constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of the Organizer, which are final and binding. Being designated a winner of the Contest is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements, and compliance with all terms, set forth herein.
- ENTRY PERIOD: The Contest begins on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 00:01 Pacific Daylight Time (“PDT”) and ends Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 23:59 Pacific Standard Time (“PST”) (the “Entry Period”). Entries that are submitted before or after the Entry Period will be disqualified. Entries submitted before or after the Entry Period will be disqualified.
- HOW TO ENTER: To enter the Contest, click here to access the Entry Form and a QR Code that can be used to submit the completed form. The Participant should draw their Pictogram on the Entry Form and fill out the requested information. THE ENTRY FORM MUST BE SIGNED BY A PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN OF THE PARTICIPANT AND NO ENTRY FORMS WILL BE ACCEPTED WITH THIS SIGNATURE. The completed Entry Form can be submitted by scanning the QR Code and following the directions provided to upload the Entry Form.
Limit of one entry per person and any entries attempted through the use of agencies, or robotic, repetitive, automatic, programmed or similar methods, or through the use of fraudulent email accounts are prohibited and will not be accepted. Entries will be disqualified if they contain any inappropriate material or language including profanity, to be determined in the Organizer’s sole discretion. - SELECTION CRITERIA AND PROCESS: The Organizer and Nippon Design Center (“NDC”) will review all submissions together and select 30 original works of art as winners by December 23, 2025. Winning artwork will be a pictogram depicting life in Los Angeles, California, and the group of winning artwork, as a whole, is intended to represent a diverse cross-section of life in Los Angeles, including perspectives from different age groups.
If a student participant (and/or their parent or legal guardian) whose artwork has been selected as a winner cannot be contacted within five (5) days after the first attempt to contact him/her, the Organizer and NDC may select an alternate student’s work in his/her place from the remaining entries, utilizing the same criteria.
Artwork submitted for the Contest may not be, at any time, used by entrants to promote or advertise any product, service or event, whether commercial or otherwise. Artwork may not contain or be connected with any obscene, blasphemous, libelous, offensive, pornographic, political, religious, or otherwise unlawful or inappropriate material or activity. Organizer reserves the right to disqualify entries and remove submissions/photos that contain, or are connected with, any such material or activity, without prejudice to any other action that may be taken in connection with such submission.
The Organizer intends to display each piece of winning artwork in the JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles gallery in 2026, alongside a second version of the pictogram created by the NDC, a professional graphic design firm. - OBLIGATIONS OF STUDENT PARTICIPANTS:
- Each winning participant and their parent or legal guardian may be required to complete and return an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release (the “Affidavit/Release”) within five (5) days of being notified they are a winner. If they fail to sign and return the Affidavit/Release within the required time period, he/she will be disqualified and an alternate entrant may be selected in his/her place using the same criteria as above.
- Each winning participant must deliver their original artwork to the following address:
JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles “My LA Pictogram”
Attn: Planning Department
6801 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 205, Los Angeles, CA 90028
The student participant (or their parent or legal guardian) is responsible for the costs associated with delivery of the artwork to the JAPAN HOUSE.
- PRIVACY AND PUBLICITY: All information submitted by entrants in the Contest will be treated according to Organizer’s Privacy Policy, available at https://www.japanhousela.com/privacy. For the avoidance of doubt, the Organizer may not grant certain privacy requests you would otherwise be entitled to as described in the Organizer’s Privacy Policy where doing so would conflict with the performance of these Official Rules. You hereby agree to waive irrevocably all moral rights of whatever nature in your artwork including but not limited to your title and description of the work which you provided for the entry.
- GENERAL CONDITIONS: In the event that the operation, security, or administration of the Contest is impaired in any way for any reason, including, but not limited to fraud, virus, or other technical problem, the Organizer may, in its sole discretion, either (a) suspend the Contest to address the impairment and then resume the Contest in a manner that best conforms to the spirit of these Official Rules or (b) select the winning artwork from among the eligible entries received up to the time of the impairment. The Organizer reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner or with the intent to threaten, annoy, harass, bother or otherwise disrupt any other person. Any attempt by any person to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, the Organizer reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Failure by the Organizer to enforce any provision of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. In the event of a dispute as to any online entry, the authorized account holder of the e-mail address used to enter will be deemed to be the entrant (or the parent or legal guardian of the entrant, as the case may be). The “authorized account holder” is the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, or other organization responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address.
- RELEASE AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY: By participating in the Contest, entrants and their legal parents or guardians hereby agree to release and hold harmless the Organizer, Yoshimoto Entertainment USA, Inc., and NDC, and each of their parents, officers, directors, managers, employees, agents, and equity owners (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the Contest, including, but not limited to: (a) any technical errors that may prevent an entrant from submitting an entry; (b) unauthorized human intervention in the Contest; (c) printing errors; (d) lost, late, postage-due, misdirected, or undeliverable mail; (e) errors in the administration of the Contest or the processing of entries; or (f) injury, death, or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Contest. Entrant further agrees that in any cause of action, the Released Parties’ liability will be limited to $10, and in no event shall the Released Parties be liable for attorney’s fees. Entrant waives the right to claim any damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, punitive, consequential, direct, or indirect damages.
The Released Parties shall not be liable to winners or to any other person for failure to display the winning artwork, by reason of any acts of Gods, any action(s), regulation(s), order(s) or requests(s) by any governmental or quasi-governmental entity (whether or not the action(s), regulation(s), order(s) or request(s) prove(s) to be invalid), equipment failure, terrorist acts, earthquake, pandemic, war, fire, flood, explosion, unusually severe weather, hurricane, embargo, labor dispute or strike (whether legal or illegal), labor or material shortage, transportation interruption of any kind, work slow-down, civil disturbance, insurrection, riot or any other cause beyond the Release Parties’ control. - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Each entrant and his or her parents and/or legal guardians represent and warrant that the artwork submitted by such entrant in connection with this Contest is an original work of art and does not infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of any third party. Entrant and his or her parents and/or legal guardians will, at their own expense, defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any and all claims, actions, liabilities, losses, damages, judgments, grants, costs and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) arising from or related to claims by any third party that the artwork submitted by entrant in connection with this Contest infringes any copyright or other intellectual property right of any third party.
Each winner hereby assigns to Organizer all of his or her copyrights and other rights, title and interest in the artwork submitted in connection with this Contest, including, without limitation, all rights to copy and display, and rights to create derivative work based on, such artwork. Each winner hereby waives irrevocably all moral rights of whatever nature in such artwork including, without limitation, the title and description of such artwork. Winners will have no right, title, or interest in such artwork, nor any license to use, sell, exploit, reproduce, display, distribute copies of, or prepare derivative works based on such artwork. - DISPUTES: Except where prohibited, entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of, or connected with, the Contest shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the appropriate court located in the State of California. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, entrant’s rights and obligations, or the rights and obligations of the Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of California. You irrevocably accept and submit to the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of such courts.
- CONTEST RESULTS AND OFFICIAL RULES: To request a list of winners, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles, Attn: My LA Pictogram, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 205, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Vermont residents may omit postage for the self-addressed envelope. Requests must be received within four (4) weeks of the end of the Entry Period. For a copy of the Official Rules, mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to the above address marked “My LA Pictogram” for receipt.