I don’t know whether Barack Obama has been to the port town on Japan’s snowy west coast but the residents know him well from news reports about his faraway campaign for the US presidency. But none of that matters much around here. Obama the Town is nuts about Obama the Man.
Obama’s name graces posters hung up in the main hotel; headbands and T-shirts are planned with drawings of the candidate’s face.
Local confectioners are designing Japanese-style sweet bean cakes decorated with Obama’s portrait.
Policy doesn’t seem to matter much either in this Obama, a large fishing town also well-known in Japan for its lacquerware. Instead, the overriding issue is simple: Obama’s name.
As fanciful as it may seem, leaders in Obama — a name that means "Little Beach" in Japanese — are serious about forging a relationship with the candidate.
The mayor, Toshio Murakami, sent Obama a letter a year ago with a gift of lacquer ware chopsticks and a DVD and guidebook introducing the city, but no one knows if the package arrived as they never heard back from the US senator.
The town 400 kilometres west of Tokyo is undaunted.
Obama already has followings in other countries. His late father was Kenyan, and his last visit there in 2006 attracted thousands. He also has ties to Indonesia, where he lived with his mother and stepfather as a young boy.
Like many towns in Japan’s financially challenged countryside, Obama is eager to distinguish itself. The town is known for lacquerware and China-influenced architecture, but it’s far from being a top tourist destination.
People in the town of 32,000 say that an Obama presidency could enhance the city’s profile far beyond Japanese borders. "It would boost our city’s name recognition, and that can lead to a boost in tourism," said Murakami, though he denied the campaign was related entirely to commercialism. "I really want him to win. I can relate to his policies."
Obama the candidate has already obliged in a small way, joking to the media in 2006 how on an earlier visit to Japan, he had listed the town as his birthplace when going through customs.
In the meantime, his boosters in Obama are looking forward to the March 4 Democratic primary contests in delegate-rich Texas and Ohio.