It's not uncommon to see advertising on the sides of trains in Japan but it is rare to see one that's been completely covered in ads. Update: According to my friend @euphorythm, when a train's exterior is covered in a single company's advertising they say it's been "hijacked".

This is a train on the Yamanote line, one of Tokyo's busiest train lines. The Meiji chocolate company is running a huge ad campaign by covering all possible space with advertising. They even covered the signature lime green stripes used to identify the Yamanote trains which I've never seen before.

Meiji also purchased all advertising areas on the inside of the train as well as all video advertising on the video screens. I'm interested to know how much this costs and how many trains have gotten the Meiji makeover.

In case you're wondering, this is how they Yamanote trains look normally.