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In anime, usually the name shows up "WcDonalds" or "EcDonalds" or the like, presumably to avoid trademark issues.

But in Weathering with You, I noticed that McDonalds and the "M" logo show up unmodified. Did they somehow manage to secure the rights to show the logo in the film? How?

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According to an interview (credits to reddit for the source) with the author, Makoto Shinkai asked for permission to use McDonalds within his works. After some time, his request was granted.

You feature McDonald’s at one point. Did you want to convey the city in an almost photo-real way?

MAKOTO SHINKAI: I wasn’t aiming for photo-realism, but I did want the audience to recognise the places and recognise that this Tokyo is the place where they live. For global corporations like McDonald’s, there are actually a lot of restrictions about featuring them in animation. You need permission, for example, if you want to draw their logo. I approached McDonald’s Japan and asked them if I could feature McDonald’s in my film, because I thought it was essential as part of the real Tokyo that I wanted to show. They initially refused because there is a gun in the film, but I went back several times and I eventually managed to convince them.

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    Surprising that Japan requires companies ask permission for the use of their logos. IIRC, in the US, you are just required to use the trademark in a fashion consistent with real life (e.g. so if there's a McDonalds hamburger restaurant, and you depict it as operating like a McDonalds hamburger restaurant, you can have the store use the McDonalds logo).
    – nick012000
    Commented Jan 8, 2021 at 12:58
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    @nick012000 The US used to operate similar to Japan in this respect. But basically since the Reeses Pieces in E.T., it's gone the other way - companies will pay to have their products appear in the movies and TV. Now, sometimes you'll see (e.g. on a cooking show) they'll specifically blur out or otherwise block the logos of products that appear on screen because those companies haven't paid for the product placement.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Jan 8, 2021 at 13:45

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