OBAMA town

During all the Obama hooplah today, I learned something pretty interesting...there is a town in Japan named Obama...and they are celebrating this win as much as many Americans are.


{Obama (小浜市, Obama-shi) is a city located in Wakasa Area of Fukui Prefecture}

Here is a snippet of an article from Reuters (By Toshi Maeda) :

Hundreds of residents in the sleepy Japanese fishing port of Obama sang and danced on Wednesday to try to cheer up Barack Obama after his winning steak in the U.S. presidential primaries stalled.

Wearing colorful T-shirts and headbands with the logo "I Love Obama", residents gathered at a public hall, singing songs and shouting "Obama, Obama, Obama!"

Around the town, businesses are selling everything from T-shirts, fish burgers and cakes to chopsticks with Obama's name.

{Obama means "little beach" in Japanese}

This is what Wiki says about the towns relationship with President-elect Barack Obama:

After the city of Obama noted the rise of Barack Obama as an American politician and as the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, they decided to use the common name to boost publicity for the town. It began when the U.S. SenatorTBS where he noted that, when passing through customs in Narita Airport, an official looking at his visa noted that he was from Obama.The Obama City Hall heard about the interview and the then mayor, Toshio Murakami, sent Senator Obama a set of the city’s famous lacquer chopsticks, a DVD about the city and a letter wishing him the best. As Senator Obama's 2008 United States Democratic Presidentialmanjū gave a 2006 interview with Japanese television network campaign began to grow, more local businesses began to organize primary parties and post "Go Obama!" posters, sell "I love Obama" T-shirts, and produce with Senator Obama's face on them.

Senator Obama has since thanked the town for their gifts and support, saying "I look forward to a future marked by the continued friendship of our two great nations and a shared commitment to a better, freer world".

There are a number of Japanese with the surname Obama though the American Senator is of Kenyan Luo heritage; it is not uncommon for Japanese and East African names to sound alike.

{above photos from wiki.com, welt online welt.de }


I do not normally get too into politics, but I could not be more excited about the turnout of the election. After what our country has endured for the last 8 years with that greedy little redneck running things...we need this change. I think it will be a positive one at that :)