Tabloid report: Japan number two says Obama won’t win due to race

The Associated Press is reporting that a Japanese weekly tabloid has an article claiming that a top LDP politician doesn’t think that Americans will vote for Obama:

The Shukan Bunshun weekly quoted chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura as saying, “No matter what it looks like, the United States is a very conservative country.”

“Obama is black and Hillary is a woman. I guess it would be difficult for them to win,” Machimura, the government’s chief spokesman, was quoted as saying in a gathering with reporters in February.

“It will likely be McCain who will win the race in the end.”

Machimura has denied the report, calling the magazine “stupid” and issuing a statement about how he has black friends:

His office also issued a rebuttal to the magazine, saying that Machimura’s best friend was African-American when he studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

“It’s not in my mindset to discriminate against black people or women,” Machimura said in a statement. “In fact, Secretary of State (Condoleezza) Rice was the person I trusted the most when I was foreign minister.”