Elmo shows Japan his softer side

Elmo has undergone something of a metamorphosis in Japan.

Sure, he still has his fuzzy red look, falsetto voice and hearty laugh in Japan’s first local production of “Sesame Street.” But unlike the Elmo loved by generations of American children, this Muppet wastes little time teaching reading or arithmetic.

In Japan, known for its reserve, Elmo is all about feelings.

“We’re going for a deeper kind of character with a wider range of emotions,” said Yasuo Kameyama, one of the Tokyo producers who works on the show with New York-based Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind “Sesame Street.”

With Japan’s literacy rate at 100%, the “Sesame Street” that started there last fall is designed to be more emotional. Japan’s Elmo cries more easily than the U.S. version, for example.

The American Elmo has wept only once during the entire “Sesame Street” history, when a goldfish died, but Elmo has already had one bout of tears in the Japanese production -- when a friend left without saying goodbye -- and more are planned.