Town mayor, 73, whose name can be pronounced similarly to president-elect, was trending on social media

Joe Biden’s election victory has brought an improbable moment of celebrity to a local politician in Japan.

Yutaka Umeda, 73, the mayor of Yamato, a small town in the south-west of the country, has become an overnight internet sensation after it was noticed that the kanji characters used to write his name can also be pronounced “Jo Baiden”.