TOKYO — People across the globe hailed Sen. Barack Obama's election yesterday as a stroke for racial equality and voiced hopes his presidency would herald a more balanced, less confrontational America.

"It shows that America truly is a diverse, multicultural society where the color of your skin really does not matter," said Jason Ge, a student at Peking University in China.

Many observers echoed Obama's own mantra as they struggled to put into words their sense that his election marked a turning point.

"I really think this is going to change the world," said Akihiko Mukohama, 34, the lead singer of a band that traveled to Obama, Japan, to perform at a promotional event for the president-elect.

At a party in Rio de Janeiro, a 33-year-old music producer named Zanna said Obama's win shows that "Americans have learned something from the bad experiences of the Bush administration."

In Germany, where more than 200,000 people flocked to see Obama when he visited this summer, the election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites.

Obama-mania was evident also in much of the Islamic world, where Muslims expressed hope that the Democrat would seek compromise rather than confrontation. Nizar al-Kortas, a Kuwaiti newspaper columnist, saw Obama's victory as "a historic step to change the image of the arrogant American administration."

In Jakarta, students at Obama's former elementary school gathered around a television to watch as results came in, erupting in cheers when he was declared winner and then ran into the courtyard, hugging one another and dancing in the rain.

In Kenya, residents of the tiny farming village Kogelo, where Obama's father was born, were always cautiously optimistic. After U.S. networks declared Obama the winner, cheers and shouts erupted under tents where several hundred Kogelo residents had gathered.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared tomorrow a public holiday.