President Barack Obama is greeted by Japanese Emperor Akihito.
© 2009 – Report
TOKYO, Japan – Upon arriving at the Imperial Palace yesterday for a private lunch, President Obama shook the hand of Emperor Akihito and gave a bow. The emperor did not return a bow.
Later when he spoke to a group of 1,500, Obama referred to himself as “America’s first Pacific President.”
Obama’s bow is similar to the one he gave to the King of Saudi Arabia in April at the G20 Summit in London. The president received criticism for that bow since he showed reverence to a king.
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Comments
Well, that confirms the bow to the Saudi King! This guy is a total NWO pupet!
He bows to everyone but the American people!
I think I just threw up in my mouth.
Did Emperor Akihito return the bow? If so, it's a positive display of mutual respect. If not, it's a disturbing show of one-sided deference inappropriate for our President in the face of a foreign leader.
I'd have said in the face of "a peer" rather than "a foreign leader", but the President of the United State of America has few, if any, peers.
Please, please, PLEASE tell us that this time the foreign official our nation's leader bowed to returned the courtesy and respect. Bowing is a common gesture in the Japanese culture, and one the Emperor should have initiated or returned without hesitation.
So.... can someone please clarify: did Emperor Akihito also bow? I sincerely hope he did.
The Emperor did not return the bow
their selling Oba-Mao t-shirts in china.
i wonder how many bows he'll do to get a free one.
Ass kisser.
To Bow is to Bend Over!
I think you folks are reading into a bit too much. In Japan, its a polite greeting, similar to a handshake. Having traveled there for business, its not a sign of reverence, its being polite. What's wrong with being polite?
Now are there any Japanese ex-pats that can analyze the bow, or is it a bunch of blowhard conspiracy theorists?
their selling Oba-Mao t-shirts in china.
i wonder how many bows he'll do to get a free one.
To Bow is to Bend Over!
Please do your homework before blasting off about acts of respect and culture.
The correct forms of greetings (or bows) correspond to the prevailing modes in each culture.
The only way you can justify that an American president bows to NO ONE, is to use the rule of the Roman Empire. NO Roman ruler bowed, not even a ranking general, to ANY foreign king or queen. Are we the new Roman Empire?..hmm.
But in the case of what is considered "correct", please read as follows.
1) To monarchs of the United Kingdom: A stiff, but perceptible bow of the head, (NOT the at the waist), combined with handshake, if offered....is correct.
2) To the successor of the dynasty of over 2000 years in Japan:
A bow, (which should probably NOT be from the waist), with a handshake.
3) To some small 'king' of a previoulsy incosequential "monarchy" of desert bedouins, now rolling in oil money: "maybe", and stress of 'maybe', a very low bow of the head, followed with a handshake
There ya go
Obama promised to change the image of the United States. Truth be told, the US never had the image kow-towing. Now it has.
Bowing is being polite, you morons. Get over it.
Nice to see a president who shows some respect to other countries
A bow is a sign of weakness... We need strong leadership not passive resistance....
And, I suspect, 20 seconds earlier Emperor Akihito bowed to Obama.
You guys are idiots.
That is all.
Idiots. Everyone knows American can nuke and kick Japanese ass 10 times over. We did it before and we can do it again and even the Japanese emperor knows that.
For Obama NOT to have bowed would have horrified the Japanese. For the emperor to have bowed back would ALSO have horrified the Japanese.
The bow is a polite show of respect to a reigning emperor of a 2,000 year old unbroken dynasty. It in no way makes America any less except for those in America who may feel a bit of an inferiority complex.
Who here has an inferiority complex?
F##k you, why is this news...f##kin news troll!!!
A young man bowed to an older man. That's the cultural meaning of the gesture.
Between Japan and us, we are the ones who connect bowing to servitude. So if they don't see it in that way nor does most of the world as they understand that the meaning of these gestures are culturally relative, what really is the problem?
Idiots who know nothing about different cultures, read and learn a bit about the culture before you make comments. You guys look like morons.
Someone's taking credit for an AP article. Seriously? You just copied the AP article and plugged some YouTube videos. That's not journalism, that's not even blogging, that's just lazy.
Ha. People getting all excited about a bow -- it's because they don't know the difference between substance and image. A REALLY strong man can bow to another and not be diminished.
Weak, frightened little men don’t know this. They think you have to bluster and posture and threaten.
Nobody with half a brain anywhere in the world thinks the strength of the United States is any less for the President offering respect to foreign leaders ... except the weak, frightened little men here at home.
A bow is a small politeness, not a sign of weakness. I'm sure the Emperor thought it was charming. And the people of Japan, I'll bet they love Obama all the more.
Which is the point. Obama travels and spreads good will. Wherever he goes, and what he does there, people like us more. Which means they’re willing to trade with us more, work with us more, cooperate with us more against terrorism.
After 8 years of the small, belligerent, HATED man we had before, this is a good thing.
Don't you think it is customary?
It’s a cultural sign of respect in Japan, especially to elders. It does not take away from the fact that we have had active military bases in that country since World War II. Which reminds me, does anyone remember the ONLY country in this history of the world to have atomic weapons dropped on it? Yep, that was Japan. No, I didn’t forget about the horrible things Japan did in that war, but I’m just saying if you look at the scoreboard, we are still kind of ahead of the game. So, chill out. Besides, I’d have a bigger problem with a major human right violator like Saudi Arabia or China (just saying). Or maybe, we should be rude to everyone and get in a bunch of wars and send our 18 years old to die (for a F#CKING bow!!!).
The Emperor is bowing back in that picture. It looks like he's leaning forward, but that's a bow. The degree of the bow shows how much emotion is in it, and for the descendant of the sun goddess, which the emperor is, that much of a bow is huge. It looks like Obama bowed a little too far, but that might just be that he curled his back. You bow from the hip, for whatever degree of bow, and keep your head up.
He was showing respect to a foreign leader in the manner that is proper in that country. In Asia it is customary for greetings not to include actually touching the other person. Hell its not like he got on his knees and kissed the man's shoes.
It's easy to bow because he doesn't have a spine. What a tool! Get this man out of office...NOW!
Curious ! do other countries ( or US ) go nutz when leaders visit the USA and shake hands ? say thank you ? show respect for the country and the people they are a guest of ?. This is not a show of weakness, its a show of cultural understanding and overall universal goodness. We ( he - us ) do not have to agree with the culture and ways of others, however, when we are friendly guest, being greeting in a friendly surround, I see no reason not to take the high-road and be decent humans.
I bet that many here would never work in a diplomat's office.
You guys got to examine your heads really... Your obsession with Obama is bordering the ridiculous.
Obama is our president whether you like it or not and he will stay there until 2016 because WE the people will re-elect him again :)
Gosh I have never seen so many ignorants together.
Some of the remarks shows how ignorant are these people. They have no idea of cultures of other nations. That ignorance is costing us jobs. Bowing to an elderly man shows how much is America cultured even with all our differences. Give respect and get respect. Arrogance takes you nowhere and we lost our economic edge due this arrogance - we are better than all of you. There was a time, it was true. Not now. With functionally illiterate degree holders who are good for nothing is complaining. Grow up.
Obama is an idiot - he has no idea of the significance of the blunders he makes, or what he's doing.
George Bush held hands with and kissed the Saudi king when he was president. He's GAY!!!!!
You people saying President Obama was wrong in what he did, need to get a proper education...
@Dr. J
A bow is a sign of respect, and your stupidity is a clear sign of weakness.
I doubt you know what leadership means.
This has to be a cesspool of stupid.
In Japan- you bow. In Korea, they bow too. In China? Bowing every so often there as well.
You know what JH? You're stupid. And you have no idea what crap comes out of your mouth.
I like that Barack acts as a citizen of the world, not as a citizen of invisible boundaries. Showing respect to people in ways their own culture would recognize. Though common greetings are much more informal, bowing to someone of great cultural significance is a clear indication that America's current president has taken a complete and utter departure from the egotistic that's-not-American approach of Bush, and so many other US presidents.
The more I see Barack conduct himself, the more I admire the man. I would proudly bow to him.
YES! I love it when people post these items about Obama, offering these up as so-called "blunders" on Obama's part when even a cursory knowledge of the customs of a country such as Japan reveals that this is nothing more than what it is, a sign of courtesy. Please keep revealing your idiocy for the world to see!
This is the man you wanted to fun this county. Pay back sucks!.
It's too bad so many of you are ignorant about American culture, history and tradition. If you were more knowledgable, you would understand why Obama's bow was inappropriate. Shame on you for your ignorance.
To the fake american below me, if YOU knew what you talking about, you would KNOW that President Obama's bow to the emperor was a show of great respect and thats how an American President SHOULD act to a diplomat. Now if you dont like it, move to Mexico and see how long you last
I haven't seen such a dumb bunch of people in all my life... well accept that Palin rally i covered... Rally is a very appropriate term for that event.
We get it, you don't like Obama, or black people, or gays, or science, or healthcare.... the list goes on. Can you guys think of something you don't hate other than Jesus?
@blogger and stupid ass racist incompetent *****
Bowing is a greating and a sign of respect in Japan. In Japan, instead of verbally saying hello, the bow, its like a hand shake in USA. this Article is blowing things out of proportion and makes me realize how stupid Americans really are. Some first World country it is. Its filled with American supremacists who are in fact stupid and listen to ***** like Rush Limbag and Glenn Beck. Go back to ***** school please, you guys know jack about foreign relations. You you people including the retard who wrote this article have time to write bullshit on the internet, go take a internet class about how not to be a ***** incompetent retard. Its because of people like you which shows the rest of the world how America is a god damn joke.
PS, i thought, i bet some retard republican wrote this and when i scrolled up i saw the "Baltimore Republican Examiner" Up, Republicans are totally **** (not all though)
Obama didn't bow just once. The first one was far too deep to be customary. The second one was more reasonable. But then he bows about 6 times. That is a sign of submission. Watch an old movies depiction of a Japanese maid being scolded by the employer. The EXACT same multiple slight bows. Submission.
Like watching a dog drop to its back legs up as the same sign of submission.
Did he apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Real American - Now you're just making things up. Do yourself a favor and do some research on the protocol of American Presidents and diplomats regarding foreign monarchs. Until then you, and others, are just embarrassing yourself.
Retard people will be offended to be compare to this ignorant bastards! whom ever fall for this type of bullshit should have been swallow. And just to think that the moron who wrote this to cause a debate was the faster swimmer! Bag of gonorrhea sperm that's what I call it.
Doesn't the office of protocol figure all this out ahead of time for the President? The posts on behalf of what Obama does are of no more class than the ones criticizing him. Would be nice to have a decent discussion once in awhile rather than to be called names if you like Palin and not Obama or vice versa.
If it was just a normal gesture of respect, please provide links to photos of other US Presidents bowing to the Emperor of Japan. That should end the debate.
@American
Oh, you mean the protocol that eventually tarnished our image all over the world? Sometimes, things need to change for the better. We are part of the global community, and we need to show respect if we ever expect to receive it in return.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” -Gandhi
Thing is... I see this as Obama showing respect to other leaders of countries. Other leaders do as much for Obama if they visit - it may not be a bow (which is only a custom for showing respect in some countries) but it does happen. Just because past presidents have had this belief that "showing respect" would render them "less than equal" doesn't mean it's actually right.
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