Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008

By JIM HATHAWAY

Tokyo

As you know, people in the Fukui Prefecture city of "Obama" are delighted at the prospect of an American president with the same name and are already using this happy coincidence to promote local attractions.

There is a nice family at my kids' school with an African father and a Japanese mother. I asked my Japanese wife if any of those kids could expect to be prime minister when they grow up. She laughed out loud. Ridiculous question. Japan is great in many ways, but in some serious ways it falls short.

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