What gives Taro's history away is not a look in his eye or the shuffle in his walk. It's the slashes across his wrist, wounds that one year after his suicide attempt appear to still be healing. He pulled up his sleeve to show me, saying he still thinks about killing himself as the job offers never come.

Aokigahara Forest near the base of Mount Fuji.

"I'd lost my identity," 46-year-old Taro said, explaining how he'd been fired from his job as a driver for an iron manufacturing company.In Japan, where your job is your identity, that made him worthless in his own eyes. Taro had heard about Aokigahara Forest, known in Japan as the suicide forest. He decided to go there and disappear into the sea of trees.

He wandered for days, waiting for death to come. But the cuts into his wrist weren't deep enough and the weather not quite harsh enough. He eventually stumbled into some bushes, dehydrated, starved and suffering from frostbite on his toes. He would eventually lose some of the toes because of that frostbite. He would have died, had a hiker not stumbled across his nearly dead body. The hiker called paramedics and the police.

The hospitals didn't want to take him, Taro explained. Since he had no job and was homeless, he kept getting rejected. The police finally connected Taro with a credit counseling organization that found him a hospital that would treat his injuries.

For four months, Taro stayed in the hospital. When he was well enough to leave, the same credit counseling agency found him a shelter where he could live and try to look for work. So far, he hasn't found a job - a challenge in Japan's deepening recession.

There's not a lot of help for people like us, Taro says. By us, he means the unemployed and the bankrupt. Taro believes as Japan's corporations cut tens of thousands of workers, most of them temporary workers who already are considered the working poor, the suicide problem will escalate.

National statistics show that's indeed the case; January 2009 saw a 15 percent increase in successful suicides from January 2008.

Japan also has a cultural history that embraces suicide. Seppuku is a form of Japanese ritual suicide originally reserved only for samurai. Seppuku was part of the samurai honor code, where warriors killed themselves rather than fall into the hands of their enemies or for reasons that shamed them. It's a notion that still persists in a culture that doesn't adhere to a religious notion of spending an eternity in hell if you commit suicide.

Taro says he still thinks about suicide but that the will to live is stronger, for now. What would erase those thoughts, he says, is a job.

TOKYO, Japan – In a high school English class in suburban Tokyo, a familiar voice rings out in a patriotic tone. The students are mesmerized, shaping the foreign words silently as they study the printout of the audio.

Endo's class enjoy their English lesson Obama-style.

The voice belongs not to the Prime Minister of Japan, but the new President of the United States, Barack Obama.

"The world is watching," says President Obama.

"The world is watching," recites the class.

"Mo ichido, onegaishimas," says teacher Shizuka Endo, for "Once again, please." Endo clicks ‘play' on her CD and the students try the phrase again, focusing on pronouncing the "R." Their textbook is an English language book and CD set, featuring the speeches of the American President.

"The way he speaks is different from us," says student Asato Maejima. "His speech is so persuasive."

The book isn't just a hit in Endo's English class; it's the number one bestseller in Japan. Asahi Press, the publisher of the Obama books, says the book is also number one on Japan's version of Amazon.

Asahi Press, which says the textbook is its all-time second bestselling publication, released a sequel to the book. The second book features the President's inaugural address. The book is already number two on Amazon based on book reservations alone.

"Readers who do not necessarily want to learn English unexpectedly bought the book as well as those who want to learn English," says Yuzo Yamamoto, Asahi Press Director. "People wrote us letters saying they were moved and they cried."

Part of the reason, says Yamamoto, may be that Japanese politicians lack the passion that Obama expresses. Obama's tone, says Yamamoto, is positive and gives Japan some hope. The country, which has seen a revolving door of Prime Ministers in the last few years, has reported dismal opinions of its politicians in poll after poll.

Back in Endo's English classroom, the students applaud after Obama says "Yes, we can."

"I think the English isn't just English," says Endo. "In my opinion, it is more than language, it is communication." Communication beyond words and beyond borders.

OBAMA, Japan – Mayor Toshio Murakami went to the wrong chair to sit down and address the media. You can’t blame him, for this was his first real press conference. The mayor of Obama, Japan exclaimed to the dozen news cameras focused on him that he’d never seen so many before.

Murakami is the mayor of this 32,000-population fishing village, with the happy accident of sharing its name with the man who hopes to become President of the United States. Murakami is happy to see all the media in his community; maybe it’ll help bring tourists to this sleepy town and boost the sagging economy.

Murakami held up a letter and an envelope, postmarked from Washington, DC. His voice quivered with nerves as he read it to reporters from across Japan as well as a few international news crews. “I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the city of Obama for your support and encouragement, and thank you for your thoughtful gifts," he said. "We share more than a common name; we share a common planet and common responsibilities.”

Murakami paused as he read the last words of the letter: “Your friend, Barack Obama.”

He looked up at the cameras and smiled, saying: “I’m impressed by his elegance.”

It took a year for the candidate to write that thank you letter, but the town of Obama, Japan, is ecstatic he wrote back at all. The town is cheering on its namesake in the U.S. election, hoping his victory will boost the city’s economy but also bring new life to a place usually focused on daily fishing and its chopstick-making industry.

“It’s exciting,” said chopstick maker Tatsuyuki Funai. He held up a lacquered chopstick emblazoned with a caricature of Barack Obama and the words: I heart Obama. Funai is planning on the chopsticks being used at the viewing party for the US primary returns on mini-Super Tuesday.

And a party, it will be, they promise,  hosted by the self-proclaimed “Unofficial Supporters of Obama” group and featuring the chopsticks, T-shirts sporting Obama’s face and sweet ‘manju’ treats with the same caricature. For the main course, hamburger, pork fillets and special sushi have been named in honor of their adopted, favorite son.

They’ve made clothes for the occasion, including traditional party kimonos and “victory” headbands. And then there’s the entertainment: the town’s 15 hula dancers, who’ve created a dance to express their adoration of Barack Obama.

Mayor Murakami bristled at questions about what he hopes to gain from the media coverage and whether he’s latching on too hard to the coincidence of shared names. But what if Barack Obama wins the White House? Murakami chuckled: “We hope he can find time to visit!”