When Tadamasa Kimura says he is envious of Barack Obama's victorious campaign to become president of the United States, it's not because he's an unsuccessful aspirant to political office.
Instead, the University of Tokyo professor is a specialist in the information society who laments that Japan has so far been unable to make full use of the Internet to attract young voters.
"Unfortunately Japan doesn't have an 'Obama girl,' and it seems Internet use doesn't necessarily encourage political action or voter turnout," Kimura said during a conference in which he was a panelist.