Japan: Japanese bloggers on Super Tuesday

(This article is cross-posted at Voices without Votes.)

While Super Tuesday has come and gone in the U.S., conversations carry on in its wake among bloggers in the booming Japanese blogosphere. What do bloggers in the world's second largest economy think of the presidential elections of their major trading partner?

At the HAWK Blog [ja], one Japanese blogger reports on the Super Tuesday results direct from Washington D.C. [ja], commenting that:

大統領選が白熱すればするほど、現在の政権が実施している政策から国民の意識が遠のいていく感じがするので良いことばかりはないと思うが、自分の周りにいるアメリカ人に大統領選の話を聞くと、大抵自分なりの考えを持っていることがある意味羨ましい。

I have the feeling that the more heated the presidential elections become, the more citizens’ awareness recedes from policy currently being implemented by the administration, so in this sense I don't think [the elections] are all a good thing. Listening to the American people around me talking about the presidential elections, the fact that everybody generally has their own views makes me kind of envious though.

制度や国民性の違いもあるだろうけど、母国の首相が交代する際、メディアによる盛り上がりは見せつつも、個人のレベルではどこか他人事のように捉える感が漂う日本の風潮は、大いに問題であり、時間をかけてでも意識を変革していく必要があると思う。

I guess there are also differences in terms of system and national character, but when there is a change of prime minister in my homeland [Japan], there is the great problem of the tendency in Japan to perceive things, at the level of the individual, as in some respects the other person's problem; while it may take time, I think there is a need to change this mindset.

At the “North Korea Problem” blog, a Republican Party supporter blogs [ja] about an article in Asahi newspaper [ja] claiming that Russia supports Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama:

 いずれにしても、ロシアの「ちゃちゃ入れ」によって民主党全体の足を引っ張り、その間隙を縫って共和党の有力候補者マケイン氏が大統領になってくれればいいと思う。中国べったりの民主党候補より、日本を盟友とする共和党の大統領の方が日本にとっていいに決っているのだ。ロシアよ、褒め殺しでも何でもいいから、大いに民主党を揺さぶってください。お願いします。

In any case, if the “intrusive entrance” of Russia drags down the whole Democratic Party and leaves a gap to fill for McCain, the major contender from the Republican Party, I think that would be great. Because there is no doubt that a president from the Republican Party, the sworn friend of Japan, is better for this country than a Democratic Party candidate that is close to China. Russia, please lavish mock praise on them or do anything, just please shake up the Democratic Party! I'm asking you, please.

Other bloggers were much more supportive of Obama, however. Blogger hot-hitoiki [ja], a human resources consultant, writes of Obama [ja]:

私がオバマ氏をちょっと応援している理由は、女性が大統領になるよりも、アフリカ系アメリカ人が大統領になる方がまだまだ道は険しいと思うから。。こんなチャンスはめったにないのでは?と思うのです。

The reason that I kind of support Obama is that I think the path to becoming a president for an African-American, more so than for a woman, is still very difficult… This kind of chance does not happen very often — that's what I think.

でも、ヒラリーの後ろを歩くビル・クリントン・・なんかこの2人の力関係が面白い。。

But then there's Bill Clinton, who walks behind Hillary … The power relationship between those two is somehow interesting…

Barack Obama in his own words (オバマ語録 in Japanese)
Barack Obama in his own words (オバマ語録 in Japanese)

Blogger Miepong [ja], meanwhile, a John Edwards supporter who lives in California, describes her experience [ja] following the primaries in the U.S. from a Japanese perspective, remarking that she sees the strongest support among young people for Obama and Republican Party candidate Ron Paul:

こちらでは車のステッカーで候補者への支持を表す人も多いのですが、やはり圧倒的に目立つのはオバマ支持です。ヒラリーを支持するステッカーは見たことがありません。あとはけっこうロン・ポール支持のステッカーも見ます。オバマもロン・ポールも若者層に人気があるという共通点があります。高い車に乗るような中年のミドルクラスはヒラリー支持だとしてもあんまりステッカーをべたべた貼ったりしないのでしょうね。

Over here there are many people who show their support for [presidential] candidates with stickers on their cars, but of course the ones that overwhelmingly stand out are stickers in support of Obama. I've never seen a sticker endorsing Hillary, but I have seen quite a few stickers in support of Ron Paul. Obama and Ron Paul have in common that they are very popular among the youth demographic. Even if they support Hillary, I suppose that the kind of middle-aged, middle-class people who drive expensive cars don't want them plastered with stickers.

私は「反原子力」を明確にし、大企業への反感を隠さないエドワーズを内心応援していたので、彼がなかなか浮かび上がれなかったのは残念でした。オバマには確かに魅力を感じるのですが、なんとなく老獪なワシントンのインサイダーたちに篭絡されてしまいそうな人の良さを感じるんですよねー。

I supported Edwards, who makes it clear that he is “anti-nuclear power” and does not hide his dislike of large corporations, and so I was very disappointed when he was not able to make it. I certainly understand the charm of Obama, but I also sense the accommodating nature of a person who could be completely enticed by crafty Washington insiders.

And what about Hillary? At My Daily Life [ja], mother of two and (according to her byline) politician's wife purebeauty [ja] blogs about her experience once meeting Hillary [ja] while living in the U.S.:

私はアメリカ在住時に、夫の通う大学院の教室で、ヒラリーを見た事があるので、(当時、ファーストレディーとして特別講演に来ていたのです。ヒラリーを見に大学の廊下で待ち伏せしていたら、大学の先生が教室に入れてくれたのです。)個人的にはヒラリーを応援しています。選挙権がある訳ではないので、大きな事は言えないのですが、「女性初のアメリカ大統領」の誕生に期待を抱きます。

When I was a U.S. resident, I had a chance to see Hillary once in the classroom of the graduate school that my husband was attending, and so personally I support Hillary. (At that time, she had come to give a special speech as the First Lady. When I was waiting to see her in the university corridor, university teachers let me come into a classroom.) I don't have the right to vote, so I can't really same much, but I hold hopes for the coming of the “first female American president.”

1 comment

  • Leah PettePiece

    Having spent a good part of my adult life deeply involved in Democratic politics I feel a duty here to speak up about yesterdays debate between Hillary Clinton whom I support and Barack Hussein Obama. From the moment I first heard him speak there has been
    a deep fear in my soul that there is something fundamentally wrong about this man, Barack Hussein Obama. Why is it I wonder that the media is so hell bent on making him the candidate for the Democratic parry? Why is it that when I search the internet trying to vet this guy who came out of nowhere into the 2008 Presidential race that what I am able to investigate always leads to the same dead end road? Why is it that his vet papers look fake to me? First thing I did was try to see if there was normal record of his birth, but to no avail, supposedly he was born in KaPi’oloni Medical Center in Hawaii but attempting to certify this is simply put impossible. Then there are those first 8 years of so of his life spent in Jakarta, and the fact that he went to an Islamic Midrasa in Jakarta, which for me runs up another red flag on the guy. I spent most of my life as a social worker, and I am usually a very good investigator when it comes to people so I find it extremely odd that Barack Hussein Obama didn’t attend a regular English speaking school for the beginning of his education. Why would that bother me? Well let me explain something that most people do not know, a child’s personality, the grounding of who a child becomes as an adult is formulated by years 0-8, what we refer to as the “formative” years. It is during this time that a child learns who to like, or not like,what to believe in, or not to believe in as well as who is the enemy and who is not the enemy. Having lived in the far east I can tell you that people who send their children to Midrasa are NOT teaching them to be tolerant, loving, inclusive or caring of all people. No indeed, they are teaching them exactly the opposite, they are teaching them to hate Jews and westerners, and they also teach them to wear an impenetrable mask that makes them appear innocent of this hatred. Is this a man that I would want to see become the President of the United States? I will answer that with a resounding NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! This country does not need a President who can not speak forthrightly of their upbringing, we do not need a President who has a questionable past at best, and one that is not forthright and honest in their personal life! Would I vote for Barack Hussein Obama if I were African American instead of Black Russian Jew,Ist generation American? NO AGAIN! Would you trust this guy with your bank account? Would you trust him with your child’s education? Would you trust him to watch over your affairs if you couldn’t get a straight answer as to where he came from, and who had the most influence on him in his childhood? NO AND NO AGAIN!
    Hillary Clinton may not have Barack Husein Obama’s supposed “charisma” but she certainly can be vetted all the way back to her first breathe in life, and that America is the most important issue in this entire campaign, we watched as she was humiliated by her husbands behavior but still brave and true enough to hold her head high and go on with her life! We can look at her records both as a public person and as a political person and see that what she stands for is what serves the people of this country best! She is forthright and honest, true to her words and honest about her faults! Wake up America, Barack Husein Obama is NOT a Kennedy, he is not even a Martin Luther King, he has appeared out of nowhere and become a media ICON, yes the media and their hype is what has raised him to the position he is now in. In character he is weak, he is unabashedly the most media promoted presidential candidate that I have known in 62 years of life, Nixon’s failures didn’t even get the kind of courting and attention that Barack Hussein OBama has, the war in Iraq pales in comparison to his coverage! This morning I listened as Kinky Friedman mused “Is he the Anti Christ”, and I ask that same question of myself, is Barack Huesein Obama the Anti Christ? I can’t say for certain but he certainly has a strange and undisclosed childhood, and all my years of working with at risk youth has taught me that until you get to the bottom of who this man was as a child, and where he was schooled, and what his true belief system is, you really don’t know the man!
    I implore you American Democrats PLEASE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, remember that politics are cloaked in smoke and mirrors, this Barack Hussein Obama could be a snake in the grass who has worked his magic so well that he becomes the next President of this country. Please believe me when I say, I want to know much more about this man, and I believe that as American Citizens we have the right to some very pertinent answers before we wake up on November 3rd, 2008 to find that we have been duped into believing that Barack Hussein Obama is a saint come to rescue us from our many grief’s!
    There are far too many questions left unanswered for this person to be who he claims to be, I urge every Democrat who is contemplating voting for Barack Hussein Obama to vet him on your own, and perhaps then you will see that a tried and known commodity is worth much more than an unknown knock off!

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