Obama violated protocol. American presidents do not bow before foreign dignitaries, whether they are princes, kings, or emperors. No Americans of any station are required to bow to royalty. It is one of the pillars of American exceptionalism that our country rejected traditional caste divisions. Article I Section 9 of the Constitution forbids titles of nobility and stipulates that no officeholder or government employee may "accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state" without the consent of Congress.
Judith Martin wrote in her Miss Manners column in 2001 that bowing "is not an ordinary bit of foreign etiquette one might adopt out of courtesy when traveling. ... Americans do not properly bow to any royalty. We show respect for other countries' leaders the same way we do to our own."
Modern Japanese do not expect a deep bow from Americans as they would from another Japanese, and what makes it even more mind-boggling that Obama would make such a glaring error is the furor he created when he bowed to the Saudi King. Barry seems to have a very low learning curve when it comes to presidential protocol and governing.
The New York Times made no mention at all of Obama's submissive posture, which is odd since the paper used to consider such a gaffe "unthinkable." Here is Doug Jehl in 1994 on Bill Clinton's near bow to Emperor Akihito:
"It wasn't a bow, exactly. But Mr. Clinton came close. He inclined his head and shoulders forward, he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot, but the image on the South Lawn was indelible: an obsequent President, and the Emperor of Japan.
Canadians still bow to England's Queen; so do Australians. Americans shake hands. If not to stand eye-to-eye with royalty, what else were 1776 and all that about? But Mr. Clinton, alas, is not the only one since George Washington who has seemed not quite to know what to make of monarchs."
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