Tokyo - People in the small north-central Japanese town of Obama danced through the night and into Wednesday morning in anticipation of the community's namesake being elected US president.

The Obama Boys were practicing their hula dancing with a plan to make their debut when Barack Obama is declared president.

Their stage was set up at the town hall, where more than 200 people gathered in the city of 32,000 for an all-day party with six television screens set up for live reports of the election returns.

"We cannot lose to McCain," Yasuyoshi Maeno, leader of the Obama Boys, said as he raised his fist in the air. "We will absolutely win this game!"

Sporting "I Love Obama" T-shirts, 14 members of the group had practiced for a month ahead of Tuesday's elections in the United States and appeared to have been proven correct in their projections for a win by Democratic Senator Obama over his Republican rival, Senator John McCain. US television networks projected by early afternoon Japan time that Obama would win the vote.

An analyst explained the US election system using a US map as the election results came in. As blue ribbons denoting the states that went to Obama were posted on Ohio, Iowa and a growing number of other states, cheers broke out.

Because Obama's father is Kenyan, the Japanese fans invited a Kenyan delegate to join the people of Obama, 400 kilometres west of Tokyo, to celebrate the election results in the afternoon.

Citizens of Obama city had vowed to support Barack Obama from day one of the US election just for the sake of their township's name, which means small beach in Japanese.

Members of the Unofficial Association to Support the Candidate Obama have supported their candidate by making Obama bean-paste cakes, Obama sushi, Obama noodles, Obama fish burgers and Obama chopsticks.

The hype has also reached the senator's ears, and he sent a letter thanking his fans in the Far East.

Although the townspeople have never met the candidate, they said they hoped he would boost the number of tourists visiting their city.

"This is an extremely important event for us, too, because the namesake would last for the next four or eight years," an association member said.

An Obama victory would not only change his fate, but it could also alter the fate of a small beach town in Japan. (dpa)