Japan's Obama-nia

Kawasaki, Japan — The majority of Japanese do not expect much change from the election of a new U.S. president, but they have been captivated by the U.S. campaign, a Pew Research Center poll has revealed. The poll reported that 67 percent of Japanese respondents thought the election would not bring much change, but 83 percent were closely following the election coverage – slightly more than the 80 percent of Americans who took the same survey.
Japan’s expat community on a popular blog mirrored the poll’s results: “Interesting how Americans could care less about who’s running for Japanese offices, but Japan is all over American candidates,” wrote one blogger. “America is the focus of attention quite frequently. As for this election, I’ve had random Japanese people stopping me on the street asking me if it’ll be Obama or Clinton in an abrupt way (even during a date on Valentines).”

A recently-aired Japanese commercial for the phone company Emobile is evidence of Obama-nia, which has taken hold in Japan. The commercial featured Emobile’s icon – a monkey – standing victoriously behind a podium surrounded by signs declaring “Change!”

Still, the commercial drew mixed reactions from Japan’s large expat community. One viewer commented angrily, “This has been done in very poor humor and taste. There are too many racial slurs from the past where ‘monkey’ has been used as a slur against African Americans. It was insensitive and ill thought through of the company to use such an ad. As such it should be pulled and an apology issued.”

A writer on JapanProbe, another blog, felt differently: “The commercial clearly is a parody of Barack Obama's campaign, which has received a lot of positive media coverage in Japan, but I don't feel that it reflects racist ideas about black people. Emobile has used this cute Japanese macaque as their mascot in commercials before this one so it would be hard to claim that they just pulled this monkey out of nowhere so they could make a racist joke.”

While Japan’s intolerance for non-Japanese has been criticized by many, Japan still seems to be embracing an Obama presidency. The Pew poll also reported that nearly 77 percent of Japanese had either a lot or some confidence in Democratic candidate Barack Obama, while only 40 percent expressed confidence in Republican John McCain.

The hotbed of Obama-nia is Obama city in Japan’s Fukui prefecture. Obama, home to 32,000 residents, has its very own volunteer group of Barack Obama supporters. The town has begun producing Obama hamburgers and sweet cakes in honor of the U.S. presidential candidate. When asked if he was aware of this small Japanese town Obama responded, “Yes! It’s a nice town!”

Surprisingly, even a pro-North Korea newspaper, Choson Sinbo, run by ethnic Koreans in Japan, has joined the pro-Obama camp. The newspaper announced recently that North Korea prefers Obama over McCain. Considering McCain a “variant of Bush,” and “nothing better than a scarecrow of neoconservatives,” the newspaper said North Korea welcomes an Obama presidency, especially in light of the fact that Obama declared he would meet with North Korea without conditions.

Most of those caught up in Obama-nia, however, do not seem to be aware of the implications of an Obama presidency on foreign policy issues. Weston Konishi of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, who is also Hitachi international affairs fellow in Japan, recently visited Washington, D.C. and met with advisors and staff members of both presidential candidates. In a presentation last week he reasoned that McCain’s foreign affairs advisors may very well be more pro-Japan than Obama’s.

McCain’s team, made up of big-name conservative foreign policy experts, contrasts with Obama’s team, with fewer big names and more liberals and moderates. While McCain’s Asian advisors are few, they have expertise in Japan, followed by China and Korea, while Obama is advised by a group of 15 or more advisors in charge of Asia. China experts are in the majority, followed by experts in Japan and Korea.

In view of this, it is likely that McCain would hold Japan as a key ally in Asia, and emphasize free trade. Obama’s moves in Asia, meanwhile, may be determined by whichever team catches his ear – either his foreign policy or campaign advisors. As most Democrats shy away from free trade – even though Obama’s foreign policy advisors lean toward free trade – his campaign team has been pushing for a protectionist stance.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda revealed that he has also been closely watching the race. According to Japanese media, Fukuda commented, “Mr. Obama is a young man so perhaps I can give him advice, but Mr. McCain is about my age so I don't know if I can speak my mind."



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