Japan: Obama sends well wishes to Obama

The town of Obama in Fukui Prefecture, Japan sends well wishes and their specialty luck charm to U.S. Presidential Candidate Barak Obama. Because the town name carries the same pronounciation as Sen. Obama's name, the town sent wanted to wish Sen. Obama well on the Super Tuesday Primaries earlier this month. Their gift to him included their specialty good luck charm for winning competitions. In the days before Super Tuesday, Japanese supporters of Sen. Obama flocked to the town that bears the same name. Posters that encouraged Sen. Obama to "Do your best!" were found in the town's hotels and shops started selling "Obama-manjuu," a variation of a traditional Japanese pastry that has a bean paste filling.

The town's mayor says that they hope to promote themselves through connection with Sen. Obama. "If he wins the democratic nomination after receiveing their good luck charm for winning competitions, it will be good PR for their charms."

Japanese Version from Yomiuri Daily:
http://osaka.yomiuri.co.jp/news/20080216p101.htm

English Version from Mainichi Daily News: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/international/archive/news/2008/02/20080214p2g00m0in036000c.html

This is perhaps a case where the instead of the market using the media to make a profit, it's the audience that wishes to make a profit from the media. By using the the relationship with the widely televised and current media magnet candidate nominee Barak Obama, the town is hoping to promote themselves. Certainly, the news paper is also biased in its relaying of the story to the audience since the town is in Japan, thus it is rather surprisingly that the story falls under that reported as internaitonal news. This connection with Senator Obama gives the news a personnalized aspect for both the audience as well as the town of Obama. Sen. Obama is becoming increasingly well known among the Japanese and the town of Obama may even receive a bit of name recognition in the States as well as in their own country.