For years the tourism office outside the train station in the small Japanese fishing village of Obama warmly welcomed a few visitors a day. Mostly the tourism office, which doubles as a bicycle rental outlet, has directed those visitors to the picturesque temples and shrines that line the hills west of the station and the little port. All that changed on February 10 2007, when the town’s namesake announced his candidacy for world’s most powerful political office. Obama, the town, saw an unprecedented opportunity and announced it support of Obama, the candidate. Since then thousands of t-shirts and cookies printed with the text We Love Obama have been sold domestically in Japan and, to a lesser extend, internationally.