One thing that comes in abundance with election year is polls. So. Many. Polls. It seems like every other day there’s a new poll out, and each one contradicts the last.

Even though I thought I couldn’t stand to see another poll, one in particular caught my eye. It wasn’t a poll of likely, registered, or even undecided voters; hell, it wasn’t even a poll of US citizens. It was a poll about people abroad about how they view the US and Obama.

The news isn’t great for the US. The poll, done by the Pew Research Center, shows that most of the world thinks less of Obama and the US in general than they did even just a couple of years ago. The only holdouts are parts of Europe and Japan.

Why is Japan still holding on? Why do they love us so much?

The Good

Obviously, Japan and the US have had a special relationship for quite a long time at this point. Despite the two countries’ sometimes checkered past, the US and Japan have been close allies for the better part of a century.

The Japanese also dig American people, for the most part — 80% of Japanese people polled said that they had a favorable view of Americans. And even though I sometimes think that American culture is the lowest common denominator, 69% of Japanese people polled said that they enjoy US cultural exports.

But part of Japan’s continuing friendship has to do with US support following the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. Despite all of the ignorant knuckleheads who said it was all somehow karmic payback for Pearl Harbor, the US was generally supportive of Japan in its time of need.

Here’s what Pew had to say:

In Japan, 72% currently express a favorable opinion of the U.S., up from 50% four years ago. America’s image in Japan improved dramatically in 2011, due in part to American relief efforts following the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Fully 85% of Japanese respondents expressed a positive view of the U.S. in last year’s poll.

The Bad

Not everything is all rainbows and sunshine between the US and Japan. The issue of US military bases in Okinawa is always lingering in the background, and there are plenty of other issues the Japanese disagree with the US about.

The Japanese overwhelmingly (75%) oppose unmanned drone strikes by the US, but it’s hard to come by somebody who actually supports them. Only 44% of Japanese favor how the US is fighting terrorism, but again, not a surprise considering modern Japan’s pacifism.

These issues aren’t all that surprising or even very new. What really got me curious was why do the Japanese still love Obama so much?

The ‘Bama

Obama has a lot going for him in Japan. Not only is his name easy to say in Japanese (オバマ！), but he shilled for the US, appearing in ads all over Japan.

Well, maybe not; but the Japanese still really dig Obama. 74% say that they have confidence in Obama as a leader, and 66% say that they want to see him re-elected in November.

Why? It’s difficult to say. Pew doesn’t spell it out for us, so we can only speculate about why these respondents dig Obama so much. Is it his policies? His charm? His prowess on the basketball court?

Regardless of what it is that draws Japanese people to Obama, they fact is that they have a lot of confidence in him. In fact, during Obama’s presidency, at least 70% of Japanese people have said that they’re confidence in his leadership.

Pew hasn’t polled 小浜市, or the city of Obama, Japan, but judging how they reacted last time, I’d say that (Barack) Obama has Obama (city) in the bag.

Header image by Ramón Durán

The Japanese just can’t get enough of Obama. In this article (via Erin who found it via caitlinomara on Twitter), we get to see a ridiculous Obama Sushi platter. It doesn’t stop with his face, though, which is made from small shrimp and rice for the skin, black sesame seeds for the hair, and processed fish paste for the teeth (so that’s how he keeps his teeth so shiny white!). Let’s take a look at the final product, plus how all the little pieces were made.

This right here, though it doesn’t quite look it, is one of several cars which appear on the main platter. The window is made of cucumber, and the lights are made from mountain burdock root (山ゴボウ). Vroom Vroom!

The American flag portion was made with lots of raw fish (what else?). The red stripes are made from Tuna, and the white made from raw squid. This is going to be the best portion, for sure.

Of course, nothing is complete without a big “USA” somewhere in it. To do this, leftover cooked egg was put in a food processor (will it blend?) with some rice. Let me tell you now, that’s only one way to make yellow rice. Back in my day…

Also made from the “yellow rice” were these smiley faces. Won’t be so happy when they get eaten. Well, it’s about time, let’s look at the finished product!

There it is with the master himself (Mr. Kawazumi). I love the “V” up in the top middle area (V for victory!), and I also love how tasty it looks. Time to go make some absolutely retarded looking sushi in my own kitchen!

If you want to be completely awesome, please Stumble or Digg this suckah!

I’m not sure why, but the city of Obama (Japan) is celebrating for some reason…did something happen recently that I’m not aware of? Who the heck is this guy in the picture anyways?

I kid, I kid. It’s no secret that Japan loves Obama (not to mention most of the modern world), but if the name of your city is Obama, then that means you’ve got to jump on this opportunity to make your city a little famous, and possibly get a few tourist dollars out of it as well (er…maybe not dollars. Nobody wants those anymore).

Our friends over at TokyoMango dug up this video of the Obama-city folks celebrating the President Elect.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4hX23r3Dpo']

Here’s another one from the same Youtube Channel of a guy handing out Obama-Burgers. Then, an interview with him.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dG_POQ-pE0']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ18RsxqytA']

After Obama had won the election, they partied in Obama City like it was 1979 (just made that date up). According to RNW…

The locals in Obama followed election night on television screens in a special centre set up in a museum. It was a festive atmosphere with women performing Hawaiian dances, in reference to the years Barack Obama’s spent in Hawaii as a child.

Anyways, I know myself and the Tofugu staff look forward to a brighter future (yep, we’re all hippies and liberals here). Oh, and this is my 100th post! What a good way to kick off the future.

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