Japan's ‘Jo Baiden’ becomes netizen's new favourite trend after US presidential election

A Japanese mayor became an overnight internet sensation following the US Presidential election after it was discovered his name could be pronounced as 'Jo Baiden'. The 73-year-old Yutaka Umeda, who is the mayor of Yamato, a small town in the south-west of the country became a trending topic over the weekend after people realised his name showed a resemblance to the new president-elect of the US Joe Biden.

In Japanese Kanji characters, which descend from Chinese characters, Yutaka Umeda's last name can be read as "ume" and "da", but also as "bai" (pronounced "buy") and "den". The single character for his first name, Yutaka, is more commonly pronounced as "jo".

The Japanese mayor did not recognise his uniques connection with Biden until his relatives informed him that his name was trending on the microblogging site Twitter, according to reports. Umeda said he felt a not-too-distant connection, however, the suddenness of the discovery has left him a little perplexed, according to a Japanese newspaper.

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Japan PM congratulates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga was among the first world leaders to congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris shortly after their victory was announced on Saturday.

Taking to Twitter he wrote: "Warm congratulations to @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the Japan-US Alliance and ensure peace, freedom, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond."

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(Image Credits-AP)