The Republic of Nauru, which sent two athletes to the Tokyo Olympics, is going viral on Twitter, with the Japanese version of its official account having amassed 250,000 followers -- 20 times the country's entire population.
Since last year, the small South Pacific country has been creating a buzz on social media due to being "the world's smallest republic." With Nauru's participation in the Games, the nation was thrust into the spotlight as some people were hearing about it for the first time.
As its number of Twitter followers rapidly grows, Nauru officials are hoping for even more publicity.
On the night of the Olympics opening ceremony on July 23, a tweet on Nauru's official account highlighting its athletes as they participated in the march of nations received over 150,000 likes.
As they appeared on the television broadcast, bearing the blue and yellow national flag, tweets with messages such as, "I'm cheering for them just as much as I am for Japan" and "So [the country] actually exists, huh? This is a great opportunity for Nauru to put its name on the map," were popping up one after another.
The Republic of Nauru is an island nation located about 5,000 kilometers from Japan, with a population of about 13,000 and a land area of about 21 square kilometers -- roughly the same size as Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. This makes it the world's smallest republic in terms of both land area and population.
Around 1990, the country had run out of its main export phosphate ore, leading to efforts to revitalize its economy with tourism. With this goal in mind, Nauru established a Japan tourism office in Tokyo last October and set up a Twitter account.
Japanese members of staff have been tweeting in Japanese about the country's abundant nature, such as its beaches at sunset, as well as information about the way the people there live, including their use of soy sauce.
Slightly tongue in cheek tweets highlighting the country's small size such as, "Even though you can't see it on a world map, [Nauru] is a neighboring country of Japan" and "[Nauru] gets as many as three Japanese tourists a year" had brought its follower total to around 220,000 prior to the Olympic opening ceremony.
Once the Games were underway, the account gained 30,000 followers in a week, thanks to tweets related to the Nauru athletes' entrance march.
Just as the nation's official Twitter account topped 250,000 followers on July 30, the country tweeted, "The Republic of Nauru has won its first gold medal in the Twitter competition," while also referencing the fact that its official Japan Tourism Agency account had about 95,000 followers.
Jonah Harris, 22, placed 17th in the preliminary qualifying round of the men's 100 meters in track and field, while Nancy Abouke, 18, placed 10th in the women's 76-kilogram weightlifting event.
"We're glad that such a small country floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is now known in faraway Japan. Once the novel coronavirus is under control, we hope that people will visit Nauru to do some sightseeing," said an official of the Nauru tourism office in Japan.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
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