NEWS ON JAPAN
 
Amber Demery and Sara MacDonald, two young Americans doing internships in Tokyo, expected just a few people to show up at Hooters first thing Monday morning, even if there was a Super Bowl going on. What they found was a restaurant packed with cheering football fans including Americans and a large contingent of Japanese fans.
 
For Y2,000 ($17) admission, the U.S. restaurant chain was holding a party, and business was good.
 
"The Super Bowl part is mostly the same," said Ms. Demery, a Saints fan from New Orleans, who said watching the big game was a tradition for her. "Normally we're at somebody's house eating pizza. This time we had to come to a bar." But of all the bars in Tokyo, Hooters seemed like the right one for the quintessential American sport.
 
Ms. MacDonald, who is from Los Angeles, said the only thing she was "kind of bummed about" was the absence of the commercials seen by viewers in the U.S. The Japanese version aired on public broadcaster NHK's satellite channel doesn't have commercials, so it shows replays and shots of the field during U.S. commercial breaks.
 
Gabe Archer, a former active-duty Navy man who knew some Hooters outlets when he was posted to Norfolk, Va., said it was on his "bucket list" to see what one in Japan would look like. This one, on the edge of Tokyo's Ginza district, featured Asahi beer instead of Bud Light on its counters.