If it was like 6 years ago, I’d expect to see Bob Sapp doing it.

Dante Carver in 2012!

all of you make valid opinions and put forward some good thoughts –

but please –

NAME ANOTHER AFRICAN-AMERICAN WHO CAN SPEAK JAPANESE!!!! AN ALTERNATIVE!!!!!

Please.

Buehler?

1, He’s black, so can give the views of a black person to a black person becoming President.

2, He’s precisely the sort of non-expert who make up the vast bulk of American voters.

* Oto-san was already booked on the other channel
* Dave Spector refused to put on blackface and an Afro
* Bobby was lined up, then they realised he was Nigerian, not Kenyan
* He complements the 小浜さん from 小浜市 they have lined up for the second half

PS: Obama as African-American really grates on me, perhaps as I am from the UK where Afro-Caribbean is the usual term for slave descendents. In the UK I think he’d either be described as “of Kenyan/African extraction”, rather than double-barrelling him.

PPS: I’m OK with Black, however, as it’s a self-identifying label, and IIRC I saw a stat that about 75% of US halfs identify as white, according to census data.

You do realize that the people on the news shows are not professional journalists, don’t you? When you realize that these talking heads are really media workers and not journalists, you’ll have a better understanding of the beast called Media in Japan.

In short, TV here is an act. All of it.

- the JAFA http://www.jafa.org/english/index.php
-foreign media organizations in Japan
-members of the foreign business community in Japan
-American academics and researchers teaching, researching, or studying at Japanese universities

Instead, they picked some guy who is just an actor in commercials (and one that can’t even speak Japanese!).

name another, more qualified person, then, besides those in the military, besides those who have lived in Japan on a military base in the past.

He’s a perfect fit, at least on the surface.