The problem is, those are the only people he’s speaking to...
Yes, and he should not be giving one second of his time (as POTUS) to frivolous, trivial matters while catastrophes are busting out abroad. Possibly his handlers decided it would have been worse if he hadn’t mentioned Japan at all.
But a casual reading of the paraphrased version might lead one to conclude that he was referring to the Japanese filling out their brackets, which is even more out-of-touch than what he actually said.
In any case, a verbatim in the video is worth two in the paraphrase. :)