Why Does Naomi Osaka Play for Japan? There's Very Good Reason
Here's the Real Reason Why Naomi Osaka Plays for Japan's National Team
By Pippa RagaMar. 18 2021, Updated 12:23 p.m. ET
Naomi Osaka
For the previous few years, Japanese tennis participant Naomi Osaka has confirmed herself as the next nice champion in the sports game.
Over the 2020 tennis season, the 22-year-old used her platform to beef up and amplify the Black Lives Matter motion, first by choosing not to play a semifinal match in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake, and later, via wearing mask to protest the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Trayvon Martin.
After all, Naomi Osaka was raised most commonly within the United States, between Florida and New York, the place she moved when she was once 3 years outdated. So, why does Naomi Osaka play for Japan's national staff? Keep studying.
Why does Naomi Osaka play for Japan?
Naomi was once born in Chuo-ku, Osaka, to Hokkaido native Tamaki Osaka and Haitian-born Leonard François. Rather than take their father's remaining title, both Naomi and her older sister Mari, who could also be a certified tennis participant, took their mother's Japanese last name "to try to make life in Japan easier," in line with Biography.com.
At 3 years of age, Naomi and her family moved to the United States, the place Naomi would eventually begin her absolutely remarkable tennis career with her dad serving as her and her sister's coach.
But although Naomi and Mari were raised in the United States or even had American citizenship, both Leonard and Tamaki determined when their daughters have been still young that the 2 would constitute Japan, relatively than the United States.
"We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age," her oldsters said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal again in 2018, which mentioned how Naomi was once "overlooked by everyone" and had already committed to the Japan Tennis Association when the U.S. Tennis Association attempted to recruit her at Sixteen years previous.
They opted to have Naomi play below the Japanese flag after the Japanese Tennis Association proved extra supportive than the American affiliation.
"She was born in Osaka and was brought up in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture," her oldsters continued. "Quite simply, Naomi and her sister Mari have always felt Japanese so that was our only rationale. It was never a financially motivated decision nor were we ever swayed either way by any national federation."
Is Naomi nonetheless an American citizen?
Naomi relinquished her American citizenship in 2019 in order that she may represent Japan on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Giving up her American citizenship earlier than 22 very easily served the double objective of enjoyable Japan's Nationality Act clause that calls for dual citizens to select a nationality by the time they turn 22.
"I never know what to do when someone asks me where I'm from," the tennis champion tweeted back in 2017. "I just said [Florida], because saying Japan starts an unnecessary conversation." By the similar token, she told USA Today, "When I go to Japan people are confused. From my name, they don't expect to see a Black girl."
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