This is how Japan does diplomacy.

Captain Tsubasa is one of the most well-known Japanese anime/manga in the world. I still remember a Chinese guy I met in London loves this cartoon. I still remember a French girl working at a travel agency in London who wants to travel to Japan because she wants to see the Japanese landscape illustrated in Captain Tsubasa. (I later learned that Captain Tsubasa was a big hit in France a few years ago, which triggers Europeans' interest in Japanese manga and animation.) I still remember a soccer shop in Allepo, the second largest city in Syria, decorates its entrance with posters of Captain Tsubasa (known as Captain Majid in the Middle East).

Now it's going to be used as a tool of developing friendship between Japan and Iraq (see United Press International; Middle East Online). But I wonder if the fact that Captain Majid will be aired in "The U.S. government-funded Iraqi Media Network" stifles everything...