The Yomiuri Shimbun is a national newspaper in Japan with a daily circulation in excess of 10 million.

On Monday, the paper debuted the first of a seven-part series of articles looking at the United States in this election year. The first article was datelined Madison.

Reporter Yoshikazu Shirakawa and photographer Kenji Shimizu spent Wednesday and Thursday of last week in Madison, accompanied by Jacob Margolies, who is based in New York City and is general counsel for America for The Yomiuri Shimbun.

"I was akin to the producer, " Margolies was saying this week, of his role in the Madison story.

Margolies, who has been with the newspaper for two decades, said the current series uses the presidential election as a backdrop to examine a number of issues percolating across the United States, including race and the mortgage crisis.

The first issue -- the one that brought the Japanese journalists to Madison -- is the evolving American economy and what the newspaper called the "new elites. "

They are youthful, energetic, educated, creative and entrepreneurial, and The Yomiuri Shimbun is not the first publication or expert to find Madison brimming with them.

Monday 's story quoted Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, as well as Sonic Foundry Chairman and CEO Rimas Buinevicius, whom the newspaper said Cieslewicz recommended "as a good example of a successful local entrepreneur. " (Quotes from the article are taken from a rudimentary English translation provided by Margolies.)

Sonic Foundry, founded in 1991, has reinvented itself in recent years and specializes in Webcasting technology for universities and businesses.

Buinevicius, whose photo appeared with the article, told The Yomiuri Shimbun: "We can recruit excellent employees from the university.... and I can easily talk with the mayor or governor. Even though we are a very small company, we can have good communication and influence here, which could not be expected in Boston or Silicon Valley. "

Margolies said the newspaper focused on Madison because the city has been singled out by authors Richard Florida and David Brooks as a haven for what Florida calls the "creative class " and Brooks calls "Bobos " -- a mix of the Bohemian and bourgeoisie.

"We also thought Madison would be fun," Margolies said.

I first reported on Florida back in 2002 when the Washington Monthly ran a book excerpt by Florida with the provocative title, "The Rise of the Creative Class: Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race. "

In metro areas of 250,000 to 500,000 population, Florida had Madison No. 1 in his "creativity rankings." Florida described his "creative class " as young movers and shakers who perform "a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries -- from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, high-end manufacturing to the arts. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference and merit. "

Before we break our arms patting ourselves on the back, however, consider that David Brooks, now a New York Times columnist, poked fun at the concept (while admitting to being a Bobo himself) in his book, "Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There."

Brooks has noted: "Everything the educated person drinks will leave sentiment in the bottom of the glass: yeasty microbrews, unfiltered fruit juices, organic coffees. Bobo breads are thick and grainy, the way wholesome peasants prefer it, not thin and airy, as the old shallow suburbanites prefer. "

I should note that one of the most respected of the creative-class gurus, Rebecca Ryan, has based her Next Generation Consulting right here in Madison. Ryan had a crisis moment a few years ago, when Gallop wanted to buy her business, which would have required a move to Washington, D.C. She opted to stay in Madison while having a hamburger at the Harmony Bar, deciding that a Harmony burger was a metaphor for what she liked about Madison. (It was, in a nod to the Bobos, a walnut burger.)

The Yomiuri Shimbun journalists took in Concerts on the Square last week and Margolies said he wound up having a Spotted Cow beer at Brocach, an Irish pub on the Square. He made note of something else that might, for some of us, further explain Madison 's appeal: "I did notice a lot of bars. "

Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.