Tokyo: Naomi Osaka, the "rebel tennis player" who is changing Japan
Naomi Osaka cuenta una historia.
It happened in Florida, where the best young players in the world congregate and compete.
Osaka, about 10 years old, was preparing for a match of the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament when he heard a conversation of his Japanese opponent.
"I was talking to another Japanese girl," Osaka told the newspaper Wall Street Journal.
"And they didn't know that I was listening or spoke Japanese."
"Her friend asked who she was playing," Osaka said."And her friend said: 'Oh, that black girl. Are she supposed to be Japanese?'
Everyone knows now.Osaka, the daughter of Japanese mother and Haitian father, raised in the United States, is the face of Tokyo 2020.
In each bus stop in Tokyo, the 23 -year -old appears looking down from an ad, greeting local and international passengers.She is dressed in a neon pink jacket on black sportswear.
The motto of the ad is written half in English and half in Japanese.It is the word "new", followed by a symbol that can be translated as "world" or "generation."
Works.Because Osaka, who renounced his American citizenship in 2019 in favor of her Japanese inheritance, is bringing more than titles to his homeland.She is bringing change.
"We feel a little away from her"
It is not necessary to return to Osaka's childhood to meet questions about how it fits in Japanese society.
"To be honest, we feel a little away from it because it is very different physically," said Nao Hibino, currently number three of Japan, while Osaka advanced towards the highest steps of female tennis in 2018.
"He grew up in a different place and does not speak so much Japanese," he added."He is not like Kei (Nishikori), who is a pure Japanese player."
Osaka is not the first mixed breed athlete or "hafu" that generates this type of questions.
Sachio Kinugasa and Hideki Irabu were baseball stars.
Ni ellos ni el público japonés estaban interesados en hablar sobre sus padres estadounidenses -soldados que ocuparon el país después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial- o la discriminación que enfrentaron.
Osaka is different.
"Some older people have raised ideas about how a Japanese athlete should speak and behave in public," explains Hiroaki Wada, reporter of the Mainichi newspaper in Japan.
"Naomi does not fit that traditional mold. She made visible those problems through her words and actions in Japan," he adds.
"The issue of race and identity were more discussed in the media and social networks thanks to it, including its political statements. It is a figure that arouses thoughts and reactions."
His complaints against racism
Osaka entered the club reserved for the players in the US Open last year with a plan.He packed seven different facial masks.One for each round of the tournament.Each one with the name of a black American who died for alleged police or racist violence.
He used them all, showing the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Trayvon Martin to a global audience on his way to the title.
That is an issue with which Japan, one of the nations with less ethnic diversity in the world, still fights.
For example, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK apologized last year after an animated film that explained the protests for racial justice caricaturized black people and excluded some of the key reasons for the movement.
And in 2019, the Japanese Company of Instant Supporta Nissin published, and then withdrew, an advertisement with an illustration of Osaka with white skin.
It is an issue that is deeply rooted in other generations.Osaka's mother and father emigrated to the United States when she was 3 years old, without the approval of her maternal grandparents.
"I think what happened in the last year has been a learning process for the Japanese," says Robert Whiting, author of Tokyo Junkie, a book that details his almost 60 years living in the city.
"There has been a discussion on television programs, explaining why Naomi feels that way and talks about the way he does."
"In Japan, tradition is to avoid conflicts and discussions. It is not like in the United States, where it is common," adds whiting.
"Generally, the more famous, the more taciturn you are. You do not want any controversy, you do not want that to be reflected in your teammates, your organization or sponsors."
"Individualism is something highly valued in the West, but not in Japan. Here, harmony is the most important," he explains.
Long episodes of depression
If last year the theme revolved around the origin of Osaka, this year he has done it about his life.
In May, after saying initially that he would not talk to the media during the open of France, he retired from that tournament and after Wimbledon, citing mental health problems and long episodes of depression during the previous three years.
Tokyo's Olympic Games mark their return to the court after two months.
She is the highest profile figure that has installed the problem of mental health in public opinion.But she is not the only one.
The international footballer Kumi Yokoyama, 27, revealed last month that is transgender and intends to completely make the transition to man, once he retires from sport.
He explained how to have played in the United States and Germany had made him aware of ignorance and prejudices in Japan.
In 2020, Hana Kimura, a professional fighter, took her life after appearing in Terrace House, a popular reality show.
In the Japanese population in general, the number of people who report mental health problems has doubled between 1999 and 2014.
"Traditionally in our nation, remembering when I was a child, 40 years ago, it was shameful that you or a relative of yours had a mental health problem," said journalist Hiroaki Wada.
"In general, the perception of weakness, probably more among athletes, has prevented people from talking."
"But things are changing. People are becoming more open to admit that people have mental health problems and that it is something we have to deal with," he said.
Osaka and the new Japanese generation
And Whiting has no doubt where that change comes from.
"I think Naomi Osaka and other Japanese mixed race are still outsiders to some extent," he says.
"But this generation of Japanese is much more sophisticated than previous generations, have a much more global perspective with Internet access and countless television channels."
"There is a broader understanding that did not exist when I arrived in the 1960s or in the 1980s and 1990s. The world is a much smaller place now and Japan has benefited from that."
A new world.A new generation.Anyway, you explain it, Osaka is an important part of change.
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