After spending a few hours reading newspaper articles and blogs around the Internet about the US presidential race in Japan, I get the impression that Obama’s candidacy has struck a chord in Japan for his inspiring speeches, calls for reform and unity, and intriguing personal biography — many of the same reasons he is so popular in the United States. Although most American press reports on Obama in Japan have focused on cheering from a Japanese town with a kindred name, the Obama phenomenon seems much broader than that. Here I briefly highlight two articles about Obama that first caught my eye, as they show how some view Obama as a symbol of racial healing and political change.
The left-leaning Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s second-largest daily, hailed Obama’s victory in the Democratic presidential primary process as politically transforming, but the editorialist seemed genuinely puzzled by Obama’s warm reception among voters. The editorial noted that it must have “caught many readers by surprise” that the United States had sufficiently overcome racial prejudice for Obama to receive such wide support in the primaries. After noting that the secret of Obama’s success was to downplay the racial discrimination he might have faced, the Asahi indicates that they still have doubts about how much America has really changed, explaining, without further comment, that “[t]he decline in support for Obama toward the end of the campaign seems to imply the hesitation in American society to accept a black as a presidential candidate.”
The LDP’s Saito Toshitsugu, a member of the House of Representatives, sent out an official e-newsletter in March gushing about Obama’s political savvy, while caricaturing Hillary Clinton as a beastly politician. The staff-written newsletter explains that, with the enormously popular slogan of “Yes We Can,” Obama speaks to what people hold in common and gets them excited about politics again. In praise familiar to American readers, Obama is lauded for garnering support from all races, men and women, young and old alike, as he not only cuts into Hillary Clinton’s support base, but also attracts voters from the Republican Party. According to the newsletter, Hillary Clinton, by contrast, couldn’t hide her “true” hysterical nature (honrai no hisuterrikuna seikaku) when she scolded, “Shame on you, Barack Obama!” The writer hopes that Japanese politicians, too, will embrace a spirit of “Yes We Can” and show citizens their reform-minded spirit.
