Only really self righteous and angry people go through the trouble of registering to comment on newspaper sites. The rest are just like..."I have to fill out a form and pick a password to comment? Meh, nevermind"

Results in a bad sample.

Michael, "we" do not live in such a world. Only a select group of Americans do - and let's hope they stay on their side of the Pacific and keep right on inbreeding until their DNA gets too corrupted to replicate.

Yea, but Lance, some of us Americans here might want to go back to their country and not find it in the grips of some mutant uprising.

Humility? Idiocy. He made a fool of himself, and as he was representing an entire nation, he made of fool of the entire nation as well.

It is -not- that hard to find an advisor that would have told him proper protocol. Instead, he decides to use whatever half-assed manners he picked up randomly and royally screws up.

Even Kyoto news in Japan is only showing the video of him greeting the Empress, since he actually came close to doing that correctly. They aren't showing his disgraceful (and borderline insulting) bow.

In what way is his bow disgraceful or 'half-assed'? And in what way did he make a fool of the nation? Please elaborate.

I grant that the bow may have been deeper than necessary, but the video of him greeting the Saudi King some time ago shows roughly the same depth of bow. And as for it not being proper protocol and 'what American Presidents are supposed to do', I find that very disturbing. So what if Obama is doing things a little differently? I think it's a refreshing change and it's nice to see the human side of the President. If you ask me, Obama is ticking the right boxes in building good relations with other countries, even if a few self-obsessed Americans have to give up their bloated sense of pride along the way.

Um, he's an American. He doesn't have a life time of experience bowing to Japanese people. I don't even do it right all the time, and it's not because I'm half assing it or being disrespectful. Get off your high horse.

How about this angle: He tried, good for him. Meeting the Emperor was the least important thing he did on this visit, he's touring Asia to handle things a lot more important then posing for pictures with a symbolic figure head.

Or this angle: Less then a century ago the emperor invaded Obama's home state and we are friendly enough for him to not only visit the emperor, but bow already. I'm sure the emperor shakes hands when he's here. It's just protocol.

Or this angle: Shut up.

Props to Obama for at least trying. I thought it was very respectful of him. If it had been anyone else who is not a political leader, just a regular person who somehow managed to meet the Emperor (just go with it), would there be as much talk about it?

I'm not American or Japanese, and I don't see what the big deal is. But I don't know --how would Obama or any US President greet, say, the Pope? Would he bow before the Pope and address him as Holy Father? I would imagine so.

It's not a big deal, some people just don't have anything going in their own lives I guess.

I've just wasted 15 minutes getting annoyed with my fellow Americans by reading the comments on about this from other articles--including Fox News. Wow! I never remember the comments from the left leaning sites about Bush being that mean, rude and filled with pointless hate. That on top of such a pointless story.

So thank you my fellow Americans for wasting my time. Look I'm even commenting on it here ARGH!

Shaking hands while bowing was a bit of a mistake, but no big deal. ARGH!

apparently the Japanese press did not think anything of the bow, until the American's started making a fuss about it!

He's just respecting the local culture of the places he visits, is all.

Well, some of yall make valid points. As for me, I do not feel it is proper for any US president to bow to any king or queen. America is supposed to be a nation which does not serve kings and queens.

Well, they've been bowing to the Emperor for decades...

@ Hide - agreed, and I would far rather see the POTUS bowing to the Emperor than, say, kissing a Saudi prince on both cheeks and holding his hand.

Bowing is a greeting, not a service.

How on earth does "bowing" equal "serving?!" I bow to the delivery guy when he comes to my door. Agree with Hide, David and Envoy. It was a gesture of civility that went a little cockeyed. A (B+?) for effort.