Japan Sees Michelle’s Absence as a Slight

H/t FOTM’s DCG

The POS is in Asia for a 4-nation tour, Japan being the first.

He’s traveling stag, which lends substance to The National Enquirer‘s reports that he and Mooch are so estranged, they are leading separate lives. The estrangement became really bad when Mooch felt humiliated by the POS’s flirtatous “selfie” (see below) with Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service last December.

The Japanese are among the world’s most decorous peoples, who place great importance on status, ritual, and displays of courtesy and deference. Given that, they are reading in FLPOS Mooch’s absence something more sinister than marital discord, especially since Mooch had only recently visited China.

China and Japan were enemies in the Second World War. Today, the two countries are in contention over the ownership of a cluster of islets in the East China Sea called Senkaku by Japanese and Diaoyu by Chinese.

Howard LaFranchi reports for The Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 2014:

[O]n the eve of Mr. Obama’s state visit to Tokyo this week, Japan is … openly fretting about its place on America’s priority list – particularly in comparison to rising rival China.

The reason? When Obama arrives Wednesday evening, he’ll disembark Air Force One solo – without first lady Michelle Obama. Obama will be the first US president to come to Japan on a state visit in 18 years, but never mind: Michelle’s absence has thrown Tokyo into a tizzy.

Media commentators, social media discussions, academics, even some officials, named and unnamed, are wringing their hands over Mrs. Obama’s decision to sit out not just Japan but her husband’s entire eight-day Asia trip, which will also take in South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

At least one miffed member of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, has gone so far as to become snarky – so not like Japan – and intimate that the president’s solo travel must say something about the state of the Obama marriage.

But for most of those doing the chattering, Mrs. Obama’s absence is a woeful sign of Japan’s retreat from the top tier of America’s allies.

No doubt the first lady’s no-show would have disappointed and prompted speculation under just about any circumstances. But what has really thrown the Japanese for a loop is that her failure to grace Japan with her presence comes within a month of Mrs. Obama’s widely covered trip with daughters, Sasha and Malia, to (shudder at the thought) China.

To the Japanese, the sight of Michelle jumping rope with Chinese kids, feeding pandas, trying out tai-chi, and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, was more than insult added to injury. It was proof of China’s ascendency to the top rung of America’s strategic priorities and Japan’s fall to second class.

Far be it for Queen Mooch’s lowly subjects, the American taxpayer, to expect that, notwithstanding her feelings about the POS, she does what a first lady is supposed to do, which is to accompany the president of the United States on diplomatic visits to foreign countries.

To paraphrase White House Dossier reader Jerry G: “Michelle/Michael is probably too busy getting his/her estrogen shots.” LOL