Michael Jackson is dead, and Japanese fans have reacted with sorrow. And, for some reason, Japanese politicians have also felt the need to talk about the King of Pop:

“He was a superstar. He was a singer who made his presence felt,” said Prime Minister Taro Aso, who remembered first seeing the pop icon as a tap-dancing child in the Jackson Five in the mid-1960s.
[...]
“I feel sad as I had watched him since he was a member of Jackson Five,” Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tsutomu Sato, 57, told reporters.

“With a lot of popular songs, he built a generation,” said Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, 53.

Top government spokesman Takeo Kawamura hurried to retract potentially controversial remarks about the late pop icon, who he said did not appear to be black because of his pale skin.

“I didn’t get the impression that he was a black man because his face was all white,” Kawamura told reporters, recalling his meeting with the singer in 1998 at the inauguration ceremony of then South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung.

He later withdrew the remark, saying he had not intended to cause offence.

Wakita Inc in Japan, a company that sells Michael Jackson suits in Japan, has also posted a message of sorrow on its website.

[hat tip to Aceface]

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