Japanese Presidential Puns
If you're new here, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. Thanks very much for visiting!
I was doing some unsupervised surfing through Japanese political message boards, and found something that delighted me. There is an inclination to turn various candidates names into puns. I love it! Here are some that I found.
Hillary Clinton → Hillary → ヒラリ → ひらり
Hirari means “nimbly” or “lightly” according to Rikaichan.
Barack Obama → Obama → オバマ → 小浜
This is the same old story about the town in Fukui Prefecture called Obama (English).
John McCain → McCain → マケイン → 負けいん
Makein is a really rough, colloquial way to say “I will not lose!” Lucky match for a candidate, no? Ok, maybe it’s a little shoehorned, but still. Ha ha.
Mitt Romney → Romney → ロムニー → ロム兄さん
Yes, I know Romney is out. But the pun was too good. They shortened his name a bit and turned it into Romuniisan or “Older Brother Rom.” (It’s cute in Japanese, because it also sounds like “Mister Romney.” Trust me.)
On a related note, something that bugs me here is that people walk up and ask me, “Hey, who are you voting for, Hillary or Obama?” My response is usually “Those are just the choices for the Democrat nomination at the moment. One of them will run in the general election in November as the Democrat candidate. You do realize that, right?” They’ve usually already glazed over at this point - and who can blame them? Ha ha. Politics. Anyway, I searched around using the katakana approximations of the big three names at the moment, and dredged the bottom of the web. Without further ado, here’s a quote I turned up, which has been altered to remove a reference to women reducing them to their reproductive organs (too common a problem in the scary, roughly-hewn, back room discussion boards I stumbled blindly through, I’m afraid).
2008/03/21(金)
「ぶっちゃけ、米国はまだ黒人と[女]が大統領に指名するほど
成熟した国家ではない。よってマイケンが当確。
日本のマスゴミは偏向してるから、オバマとヒラリーの
一騎打ちと報じているだけよ。」March 21, 2008 (Friday)
“Frankly speaking, America is still not a country mature enough to elect a black person or woman as president.McCain’s got it in the bag.
It’s just that the propensity of the Japanese mass media** is to report on the subject as though it is a one-on-one contest between Hillary and Obama.”
**Pun alert!
マスコミ = Mass Communications (mass media)
マスゴミ = Mass Garbage (mainstream pap and chaff, tabloid journalism)
This fascinates me. I mean, I like the pun, for one thing. I find the depth of the mass media reports to be lacking, for sure. And the result seems to be a misunderstanding that the race is between Obama and Hillary only. However, I completely understand the tendency to report on the Obama and Hillary side of things - it is way more exciting historically speaking even if it is for superficial reasons like race and gender. (Which is not to say that I am putting either of them down due to this; I am simply not inclined to think that they’d do a better job than anyone else because of race or gender. That’s pretty fair, I think.) Also, the anonymous commenter seems to think that America’s not mature enough to elect a black person or a woman. I disagree there, too. I think it’s pretty obvious that America’s ready. And I find it ironic that the tone is (in my poor Japanese reading) slightly condescending or disappointed in America’s supposed lack of maturity while at the same time using a pretty sexist slur. I obviously need to refine my searching skills and find some more reputable sources. But it was kind of interesting. Also, I prerecorded a phone call for the Dennis Miller Show last Saturday morning about the pun-nicknames - it might air this coming Friday, if you’re interested. 
on April 28th, 2008 at 11:18 am
The race is only between Clinton and Obama! For now, at least, since we’re still in the primary election. Once the democratic party has found its presidential candidate, I’m sure we’ll see more McCain face-time on Japanese International News.
Oh, and McCain –> 負け犬?
Alex’s last blog post..And here I thought ?irony? was a foreign concept in China.
on April 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
負け犬 is even more of a shoehorn than 負けいん, don’t you think? Ha ha ha. But I like the duality of the pun potential. Ha ha. Yeah, I agree with your take - once the Democrats have their candidate, McCain will reemerge. But I for one think it’s brilliant to stay out of the press while all the craziness is happening between Obama and Hillary. Smart. Why make trouble when nobody’s looking at you? I’m less likely to burn out on someone I haven’t seen for a few months. Ha ha. Sigh. Politics.
on April 28th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
McCain’s not entirely out of the press as it is, though. (in Western media, that is) He’s making headlines down in New Orleans with his criticism of the Bush administration’s hand in (or lack thereof) the Katrina response.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080424/pl_bloomberg/a1krq5×3pni_1
Alex’s last blog post..And here I thought ?irony? was a foreign concept in China.
on April 28th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Those puns are awesome. I like the komi / gomi one especially.
Yellow journalism is media ochre, as they say. ^_^
Megan’s last blog post..Of the weekend past
on April 28th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Alex - True. I think it’s smart to get out of the limelight as long as possible though. All of the candidates look worse each time they’re in the news! Ha ha. I’m all for criticizing a lousy response to Hurricane Katrina, but I also fault the local government for their role in the fiasco too. (Also, I edited the URL to look pretty.) Ha ha.
Megan - That’s a sweet pun you just made. First time I’ve seen it. And it was beautiful. Yellow Journalism = Media Ochre. Man. Let me just bask in that for a while. Ha ha.
on April 28th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I don’t see the ocher pun… a turn of phrase perhaps?
I actually do think being a woman or a minority actually could give a perspective that would make you a better president. And I actually do think being an old white guy that thinks of Asians as “gooks” (his words, not mine) could give you a perspective that would make you a bit less effective. That being said, I used to like McCain a great deal more, before he started to reach out to the neo-con base. He had a sense of humor, which communicates levity to me, but the jokes have turned sour…
claytonian’s last blog post..Japanese study blogs list
on April 28th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Clay - You’re an art guy. Ochre. Lighter than burnt umber, not quite as yellow as sienna, in the same general vicinity as sepia. Not perfect for yellow, but hey, it’s a pun - it’s an imperfect art. And journalism is one aspect of the media. Theoretically anyway. Also - I’m not one, but I dislike the term neo-con. It’s too fuzzy in its modern vernacular meaning and seems to be bandied about too much. I see that you dislike McCain. That doesn’t shock me, really. I do too. But I dislike all of the candidates. I wish none of them were running. But that’s how the cookie crumbles. This is shaping up to be another pick the least of the bad choices type election. Sigh.
on May 4th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I have a hope that McCain is just really secretly playing the game, because I think it’s likely the opposition has been crippled by itself as usual.
I was watching all the Reverend Wright stuff I could find today, and I thought he sounded pretty sane personally, so I may be at odds with a lot of people. I know old Dennis doesn’t approve *laugh* oh well, I’ll keep listening.
I guess I didn’t know why she changed it to brownish yellow journalism. Poo connotations? That’s how my mind works.
claytonian’s last blog post..Why my hashi are not your hashi
on May 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
[...] Deas hit a little bit on the issue of balanced coverage in Japanese media of the 2008 U.S. Presidential E… a couple of weeks ago, and it sparked my [...]