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

Facebook isn’t all that popular in Japan (Mixi is currently king there), but it doesn’t meant that people don’t know about it. After all, the movie “The Social Network” came out in Japan, and I’m sure that Facebook hits the news every once in a while. But what about Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg? Apparently in a recent poll, Japanese women just thought he was a hamburger (for good reason, too!).

The Zuckerburger

In Japanese, the word ハンバーグ (hanbaagu) refers to hamburger steak. This shouldn’t be confused with ハンバーガ (hanbaaga), which refers to those things us Americans order three meals a day from McDonalds (fourth meal, of course, is タコス from Taco Bell). The second half of Mark Zuckerberg’s name, when translated to Japanese, is very similar to the word “burger” from the word for hamburger steak, which makes it sound very hamburgerish.

ザッカー (zakkaa) バーグ (baagu). That’s how you pronounce his last name in Japanese. The バーグ (baagu) is the same バーグ from the word ハンバーグ (hamburger steak). That’s where the confusion sets in.

When asked what “Zuckerberg” is in Japan, 35.6% of women polled thought he was a hamburger. Here’s what else they came up with:

35.6% said “Zuckerberg” is a hamburger.

19.6% thought “Zuckerberg” had something to do with soccer, because the first part of his name, ザッカー (zakkaa) is very similar to the word for soccer, サッカー(sakkaa).

14.4% got the correct answer or something close to the correct answer.

11% chose something miscellaneous.

7.6% thought it was some kind of abbreviation.

The really fun part, though, is when you start breaking down the answers. For example, one person thought that “The Zuckerburger” was a new menu item at McDonalds. My favorite is the person who thought it was a soccer ball shaped hamburger steak. That combines #1 and #2.

P.S. If you don’t know katakana, and want to understand why Zuckerberg is like Hamburger in Japanese, I’m going to (secretly, just for people reading this article) make the Katakana lessons on TextFugu free for a while, because it’ll help you enjoy this article more effectively. If you don’t know hiragana yet, though, you should learn that first (and to do that, you should start here)… anyways, carry on.

Facebook In Japan

One thing that also stood out a bit to me was the answers from the people who got the question right (and kind of knew who The Zuck is). There were only six examples, but two of them had to do with Mixi. One was “He made America’s version of Mixi” and the other was “a person at the Mixi America Branch” (which I’m pretty sure doesn’t actually exist). My favorite in this category, however, was “(Zuckerberg) is the name of the person who made the Internet” (c’mon, that’s Al Gore).

The examples on Mixi, though, are pretty interesting. I’ve written about Mixi, as well as some of the differences (though I’ve mostly just written about how to join and get in via various loopholes… which don’t really work anymore, so don’t ask). Mixi is the big SNS in Japan (though Gree has overtaken them recently… but it’s a bit different), and it’s really tailor made especially for Japanese people.

• People rarely show pictures of themselves for their profile picture on Mixi (compare that to Facebook, where nearly everyone does).
• People rarely upload pictures of themselves for albums (try doing that on Facebook… Where’s your face!?).
• Real names are hidden and nicknames are king (Facebook has a use-your-real-name-or-get-out policy).
• People on Mixi are generally worried about people knowing who they are (Facebook, it’s really easy to find out a lot of info about anybody).

It’s mainly a cultural thing, but Facebook’s openness is basically making it hard to grab a big foothold in Japan (though I think that will change in the next 5 years), though one article I read thinks Facebook is in its own little “professional networking” niche (which I can confirm through what I’ve seen too… pretty sure all my Japanese friends are CEO’s of startups). If you want to know more about Facebook in Japan, this is a great NYT article.

Other “Zuckerberg Meanings”

To close things up, though, here were some other fun explanations people had:

“Something young people say when they’ve seen something unbelievable” (everyone should start yelling “ZUCKERBERG” when you see something awesome).

One person thought it had to do with a lot of bugs because of the バーグ (baagu) sounding like バグ (bagu), which sounds like the English word for “bug.”

“Something you say when you when you want to express the feelings of ‘You idiot!’ or ‘Quit Screwin’ Around’”

“A store like H&M that came from Europe”

“A term for when you have a lot of small things / accessories in your car, and it is becoming dirty.”

P.S. Thanks to @HirokoTabuchi for tweeting about this survey. You should Follow Her On Twitter if you’re interested in smart Japanese things.

Here is my thought process on posting. Normally, I only write about things I don’t see anywhere else (compared to a lot of blogs that just snatch and cite content from other blogs, being all sheepy). I don’t like being a sheep…and besides, why would anyone read Tofugu if they could just read another blog with the same content? I want to still stay true to that, so with that in mind, I’d love it if you told me what you are interested in. Let me know in the comments. Here are some starter questions for you if you need them:

1. What do you like about Tofugu (and want to see more of)?
2. What do you think Tofugu is lacking?
3. What sections should be expanded?
4. Would you be interested in more Japan “news” (in addition to the current cultural / language posts that Tofugu mostly consists of)?
5. Any categories you would add

Anything else? Don’t feel constrained by the starter questions. Please get as creative as you want. I’d really like to improve, and ideas from readers have traditionally made Tofugu a much better blog! I look forward to reading what you have to say!

*Also, an update on the story portion of the Nara Mascot Contest. I’ll be reading them this coming week, and hope to announce a winner next week. Sorry for the delay on this part!