Prime Minister of Japan holds up Ayu cover at press conference
 

Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan was talking about Japan exporting its culture to Taiwan when he raised the recent April Bea's Up magazine issue with Ayu's picture on it!!! He also showed models Karina and Yuri Ebihara.

Basically he's saying that most people can simply look at the cover and know her name, on magazines that are published in Taiwan and China!! WOWOWOWOWOWOW@!@##@!~

He holds up the picture and asks "Do you know who this is?"
And he says that (of course) it's Ayumi Hamasaki. He goes on to say that she's known mostly in China as 'Ayu'
He adds that he is holding a magazine published in China.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7isZwwCUYLA

http://news.www.infoseek.co.jp/img/p...-1-N-small.jpg
http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/r...ve/asotaro.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frwc2vSMa2A

Lol He's right! That's so cool he's promoting her indirectly.

yey for Ayu.

I've been noticing more and more how ingrained Ayu really is in the culture in japan...

its like...not even funny. I don't know if any artist anywhere has really achieved that.

ayu is international.
lol...

Ha, that's pretty cool. Yay for ayu and the prime minister of Japan. :P

Ooooh cool stuff, for both Ayu and Japan. ^^

ahh that's so cool

WOW ! this guy is soo cool XD
the first time I see a Prime Minister who talks about something related to his country's pop culture XD

Awesome promotion of.. herself. :P And yeah, this just shows how much of a star she is over Asia.

that's good idea
but hard for me to write it beautiful indeed

:roflmao

wow that's pretty neat ^^

^ and haha ;)

I believe she's their most successful pop artist abroad.

Ayu is the best!!!!

Actually whats funny about that clip is that he holds the mags up and asks the people if they know who they are and is met with either laughter or silence. Then says something to the effect of, well its not our generation really.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was famous for talking about X-Japan's Forever Love as his favorite song.

Oh wow that is so cool!!! I wanna see Ayu react (positively) to the press for this! :D

woow thats sooooooooooooo cool

xDD

im gonna tell my friends XDD



thanks a lot!



EDIT: lol omggg the "A" from ayu should become the あ in hiragana xDD that would be great xDDDD

and what would ayu think about what he did?? omgg lol

she should feel proud! :D

Hahahahaha :laugh

wow ayu should be proud. Amazing ayu! prime minister seems to love her

I tihnk its such an honour..haha

Now THAT is cool :)

lmao what a hip prime minister that Japan has :roflmao

lol .. politicians
but isn't that cawaii magazine ?

he should know who ayu is
coz ayu pay him lots of tax and his salary every year:D

nice!

how many times do you see "Aso Taro" in the tags list? :P

Nice one Taro Aso!

thats cool... at least he knows his country's advantages..

That's so cool! But no wonder he did it - ayu is one of the most important parts of their economy :p

This news has to do with the new approach Japan is adopting to boost its slumbering economy. Japan has decided to use 'soft' power to bring about a boost in its economy, hoping to use its cultural products such as manga, anime and Jpop to attract increased exports from its country to others. Getting away from hard marketing, they hope with the large media influence and market Japan has in other countries, they would be able to inject a lot more funds into Japan's economy.

Part of the reason Taro Aso is doing this is in line with his strategy to "get closer to the people". He himself has proclaimed that he is somewhat of an otaku as he is very into manga and anime.

As you can see, a Prime Minister doesn't endorse celebrities without numerous political motivations.

Ayu is a global icon!!:love

how cool! xDD Very glad to see her featured by the PM of Japan ^_^

That's some unique exposure~

I'd say it's about damn time they did. I have no idea why it hasen't happened before, maybe because of too much of an superiority/inferiority complex (America "always" being the ultimate goal??), or maybe it's much asier now that more markets are open to the japanese in the rest of asia, which is the most natural place for them to sell their culture abroad.

he should know who ayu is
coz ayu pay him lots of tax and his salary every year:D

lol that;s funny, i wonder if Ayu will say anything about this

ayu sells so shes good for the economy in japan

maybe the prime minister was checking out Ebay, Yesasia and Cdjapan and saw how much she sells in those lol


and our pockets know that she sells X___x

oh, wow!! haha that's great!! Great promotion for ayu!

Lol, it's a good promotion for Ayu.

Amazing!
Now it's time for an Ayu sculpture or monument in the Imperial Palace :roflmao

that is really cool!
and his doing promotion XD

lol, this is an interesting one!!

THAT'S FRICKIN COOL!!!

I cannot believe that Japan PM promotes Ayu! O_O


Thanks for the really cool news!

GREAT!!
he should also demand people to buy her album.. :roflmao

this is amazing news. she's not only trendsetter but she's also an icon of most knownwell japanese artist

Wooh endorsed by the Prime Minister! I think X Japan was too before Hide passed away. It's great to know he is taking a personal interest in Ayu and not for the wrong reasons I hope.

gj prime minister :D

LOL @ wrong reasons! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? He's an Otaku after all... :lech

:roflmao

LOL

lovin' the indirect promotion

WOW! That's so cool! Ayu must be so proud!

LOL Ayu is a main part Aso Taro's plan to save the economy HAHAHA

Nice exposure haha.

:thud lmao ayu in politics, unexpected and cool at the same time...

i cannot respect someone who will leech off of ayu's popularity like that
prime minister seems quite "attention starved" :eviltongu

Wow, what a promotion!

Actually, like I said, it seems he and the people in the room didn't really know who was on the cover of the magazines (all three of them). He's just using it as an example of Japanese products that are successful in Taiwan.

that's truly awesome!! too bad cawaii will be ending production and ayu don't appear on ray >_>

That's kind of ignorant on his part if he doesn't at least have some idea of who Ayu is lol.

That is really weird...

yay...that's so cool!
japan should considering to featuring ayu on their history/cultural schooling subject :D:D

HE RULESSSSS!!!!:yes:yes:yes

lol but other than that...he's holding the china version of cawaii XD
at least hold the japan verion :roflmao

but in the video he does state that it's "the famous Ayumi Hamasaki in Asia"

and he says ayu hamasaki? @_@ lol

Haha, go Ayu!

wow, now THAT'S what i call AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Ayu sure is THE best to use as an example as an influance of japanese colture in Taiwan and worldwide :yes

i dont know why but i kinda laughed at this, its like he is saying,
"do you know who this is!!?" "of course its the one and only, Ayu" lmao. *shot
Thanks for posting this :D

Lol. this video is a collector's item. :)

Yay Ayu!!

coolll

wow...that's cool

OMG!!!
Prime Minister promote Ayu directly to the reporters....
thats so cool...
i bet Ayu will be super happy to know this :)

YAAAAAY!!!!! good exposure!

i think it is true though, that because of her massive success in the early 2000's, she has become an eternal part of Japanese culture. :)

cool! he must be a really big fan

:roflmao

He knows who Ayu is :) It's very clear in the video. And I don't see how he can be Prime Minister of Japan without knowing who Ayu is.

^ Yeah that's what I thought, I dunno why some people thought he didn't know who Ayu was, how insane would that be? xD;

i love japan's prime minister for that.

Ayu must be thrilled!

WHOA!! FREAKING AWESOME!!
HELL YES!!!

Great Aso-sama!! go go go!!

YAY, now I know even the prime minister of Japan loves Ayu!

YAY for both of them!

wa.. tats nice.!! everyone shld have know who Ayu is already. :)

yay... this is going to be so cool to ayu~~

That's really awesome!

That really is amazing. :P

(Like, just imagine Obama "praising" one of our artists or something. :laugh)

Lucky Ayu.

OMG ayu must feel ecstatic about this. even the prime minister is promoting her!!!

OMG ayu must feel ecstatic about this. even the prime minister is promoting her!!!

that's really awesome @_@!!! I can't believe this happened xDD...but it's something that should be noted....she's really made herself extremely popular :) <3

That's awesome!
Even the minister knows how to respect one of his country's best artists :D

I did a slight report on him in Japanese class (well the Japanese government). All my classmates were shocked that I didn't do my report on Jpop or Ayu. But when I got to the part about the prime minister, I threw in, "Not only does the prime minister have great judgment to govern the country, he also has great taste in music! He loves Ayu >D." LOL. Everyone was like, I knew Ayu would be mentioned sooner or later lol.

^ LOL!!!! <3 of course!!! P: How did your report go?

I'm still really surprised and excited about this xO <33

It went well I hope! I was super nervous, I'm never comfortable speaking in front of people, even though I know everyone in the class very well! They gave me some nice comments about it though :)

I wonder if Ayu has ever met some of the high officials of the country, such as the prime minister himself? I'm sure he went out of his way to meet X Japan since he's a fan... maybe? lol.

OMG! Being promoted by the Prime Minister of Japan is really something!

Ayu is so blessed! +

i wish ayu acts as japan's travel embassador and come to north america to promote!!!!

The Prime Minister is probably an ayu fan 0_0
That's amazing...I hope he mentions her more!!!

ahahaa
thats great,, =D
even the prime minister too..... =DDDD

OMG THATS SO COOL :thud