Naiomi Osaka, American or Japanese?? (Or Haitian)

[Denio93]

Don't think I need to elaborate any more let the debate begin....
This great young tennis player rocked Serena in Miami days after winning the championship at Indian Wells.
With Nishikori fading and the sad state of American tennis both countries need a would like a new champion to claim as their own.

Background...Osaka was born in Osaka Japan. Her mother is Japanese. Her father is Haitian. She moved to the U.S at age 3 and lives and trains in FL. She has dual U.S. Japanese citizenship but chooses to represent Japan in competition. She barely speaks Japanese but is fluent in English.

 

[ohiostate124]

She’s American just like Sharapova is.

 

[MasturB]

Her Japanese is passable.

The story is, Osaka was maybe around 15-20th in USTA juniors in her age group, and her family asked USTA for investment money for traveling to tournaments. USTA declined and Japan offered to give her lots of money to play for the Japanese flag.

Thus, she uses her mom's maiden name to help with marketability in Japan. If she starts winning big tourneys you'll see her improve her Japanese in interviews for sure.

 

[Shaolin]

Her Japanese is passable.

The story is, Osaka was maybe around 15-20th in USTA juniors in her age group, and her family asked USTA for investment money for traveling to tournaments. USTA declined and Japan offered to give her lots of money to play for the Japanese flag.

Thus, she uses her mom's maiden name to help with marketability in Japan. If she starts winning big tourneys you'll see her improve her Japanese in interviews for sure.

IW is pretty damn big.

 

[eelhc]

American when she wins, Japanese when she loses, Haitian when she's injured.

 

[MasturB]

IW is pretty damn big.

Yep. But it apparently wasn't even shown in Japan.

Read excerpt from her press conference afterwards.

Reporter: Naomi, your match wasn't shown in Japan, but is there anything you'd like to say to your fans in Japan if they could see this?
Naomi: I can't really thank them for watching if they didn't actually see it.

 

[TahoeTennis]

we're all human.

/delete thread

 

[RF-18]

Don't think I need to elaborate any more let the debate begin....
This great young tennis player rocked Serena in Miami days after winning the championship at Indian Wells.
With Nishikori fading and the sad state of American tennis both countries need a would like a new champion to claim as their own.

Background...Osaka was born in Osaka Japan. Her mother is Japanese. Her father is Haitian. She moved to the U.S at age 3 and lives and trains in FL. She has dual U.S. Japanese citizenship but chooses to represent Japan in competition. She barely speaks Japanese but is fluent in English.

Her blood is Japanese. Nothing changes that.

 

[Denio93]

Her Japanese is passable.

The story is, Osaka was maybe around 15-20th in USTA juniors in her age group, and her family asked USTA for investment money for traveling to tournaments. USTA declined and Japan offered to give her lots of money to play for the Japanese flag.

Thus, she uses her mom's maiden name to help with marketability in Japan. If she starts winning big tourneys you'll see her improve her Japanese in interviews for sure.

Excellent point!! This opens up a greater debate on developing young players in the U.S. and how expensive it is which can be a huge barrier to entry into the sport.
Naiomi is a fantastic young player and the usta missed the boat big time by not investing.
She may need to work on her interview skills in English first but she is young and is speaking with her racquet right now.

 

[NEW_BORN]

She's a mix of Haitian and Japanese, who happens to live in America. Simple.

 

[Bartelby]

Pity the poor players who only have parentage from the same nation! They have no options to go with the higher bidder given how long it can take to become a citizen.

Her Japanese is passable.

The story is, Osaka was maybe around 15-20th in USTA juniors in her age group, and her family asked USTA for investment money for traveling to tournaments. USTA declined and Japan offered to give her lots of money to play for the Japanese flag.

Thus, she uses her mom's maiden name to help with marketability in Japan. If she starts winning big tourneys you'll see her improve her Japanese in interviews for sure.

 

[MasturB]

Pity the poor players who only have parentage from the same nation! They have no options to go with the higher bidder given how long it can take to become a citizen.

Osaka was born in Japan. So it's not like she was born in Florida and is choosing to play under the Japanese flag just because.

I personally don't care if Osaka plays for Haiti, US, or Japan. It's about what's best for the sport. Naomi Osaka playing for Japan is good for tennis in Japan. She speaks enough Japanese to be passable (look at her WTA Tokyo interview.

Must be nice for people like Daria Gavrilova to just switch which country they want to represent at such a late stage without having any ties to the country she switched to. Same for Bedene.

 

[70後]

According to Japanese law, Osaka has to choose American or Japanese citizenship when she turns 22.

 

[ScentOfDefeat]

A great young player arrives on the scene and the one thing that is worth debating is if there's any chance she could be American?
Could we maybe - if only for a brief moment - focus on the tennis rather than the contingency of X player having the same passport as you?

 

[norcal]

Is her dad Ronald Agenor? (sp)

 

[Sudacafan]

Searched Wikipedia:
It says Naomi Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan. Strange.
To a Haitian father, Leonard François, and a Japanese mother (her name not revealed).
Name of father known, name of mother unknown. Strange

Also, she has an older sister named Mari (not Maria, not Marie). Mari Osaka, also born in Osaka, Japan.
Strange.

 

[TahoeTennis]

Home is where your heart is. Most of my American friends happened to not be born in America but they're damn sure just as American as myself and anyone else who loves it here.

 

[thisiscrazy]

Also, she has an older sister named Mari (not Maria, not Marie). Mari Osaka, also born in Osaka, Japan.
Strange.

What's weird about that? Mari is a common Japanese name. Is it because you assume they were trying to have a name that sounds like Marie or Maria and so chose Mari? If so, wrong assumption.

 

[Im(moral) Winner]

 

[Harry_Wild]

She’s American just like Sharapova is.

I think Sharapova has duel citizenship!

 

[Harry_Wild]

According to Japanese law, Osaka has to choose American or Japanese citizenship when she turns 22.

I think she will choose U.S. since she does not speak japanese and really never i
live in Japan. Her mom thought Osaka could get sponsorship easier in Japan then the U.S.

 

[bjk]

Santillan is another player who is half Japanese, Taro Daniel too. Half-Japanese must be like .0000023 of world population so it's kind of amazing that there are at least three in pro tennis.

 

[donquijote]

She is half Japanese, half amazing.

 

[TennisLBC]

Her Japanese is passable.

The story is, Osaka was maybe around 15-20th in USTA juniors in her age group, and her family asked USTA for investment money for traveling to tournaments. USTA declined and Japan offered to give her lots of money to play for the Japanese flag.

Thus, she uses her mom's maiden name to help with marketability in Japan. If she starts winning big tourneys you'll see her improve her Japanese in interviews for sure.

Wow, the USTA could not recognize a good investment. Surprise, surprise.

 

[a10best]

My opinion. Great player and game.
But, I think it is very disrespectful to say you represent a country and you don't even speak the native language.
The dual citizenship part I get that but usually the person is fluent in both country's languages. Sharapova does at least speak Russian.
Solution: Learn Japanese

 

[NuBas]

Her blood is Japanese. Nothing changes that.

Please end thread.

Japanese/Haitian descent, demeanor and manners like Japanese, looks Japanese, she is considered Hapa in Japan. Plus Japan saw her talent and wanted to sponsor her way more.

 

[NuBas]

A great young player arrives on the scene and the one thing that is worth debating is if there's any chance she could be American?
Could we maybe - if only for a brief moment - focus on the tennis rather than the contingency of X player having the same passport as you?

So now they are trying to claim Osaka, after she has had success.. not before like Japan did. These threads are pointless.

 

[NuBas]

Don't think I need to elaborate any more let the debate begin....
This great young tennis player rocked Serena in Miami days after winning the championship at Indian Wells.
With Nishikori fading and the sad state of American tennis both countries need a would like a new champion to claim as their own.

Background...Osaka was born in Osaka Japan. Her mother is Japanese. Her father is Haitian. She moved to the U.S at age 3 and lives and trains in FL. She has dual U.S. Japanese citizenship but chooses to represent Japan in competition. She barely speaks Japanese but is fluent in English.

...

 

[MasturB]

My opinion. Great player and game.
But, I think it is very disrespectful to say you represent a country and you don't even speak the native language.
The dual citizenship part I get that but usually the person is fluent in both country's languages. Sharapova does at least speak Russian.
Solution: Learn Japanese

She speaks Japanese. We dont know how fluent since she's pretty shy as it is and her Japanese interviews are pretty short.

 

[jacob22]

Both, dual citizen

She speaks Japanese. We dont know how fluent since she's pretty shy as it is and her Japanese interviews are pretty short.

The commentators have said that she wants to learn to speak Japanese better, so she is not fluent.

 

[MasturB]

Both, dual citizen

The commentators have said that she wants to learn to speak Japanese better, so she is not fluent.

Fluent enough to understand, perhaps not speak..

She seems to understand it pretty fine.

 

[Soianka]

My opinion. Great player and game.
But, I think it is very disrespectful to say you represent a country and you don't even speak the native language.
The dual citizenship part I get that but usually the person is fluent in both country's languages. Sharapova does at least speak Russian.
Solution: Learn Japanese

This is nonsense. She does speak Japanese and is continuing to learn the language.

She is not very different than many Eastern European players who have trained most of their lives in the United States.

 

[Mainad]

Yep. But it apparently wasn't even shown in Japan.

Read excerpt from her press conference afterwards.

Reporter: Naomi, your match wasn't shown in Japan, but is there anything you'd like to say to your fans in Japan if they could see this?
Naomi: I can't really thank them for watching if they didn't actually see it.

Sounds as if the Japanese have yet to embrace her as one of their own. If any other Japanese player eg. Nishikori or Nishioka or Sugita had appeared in the final of Indian Wells there's no way it wouldn't have been televised in Japan!

 

[Deleted member 756486]

Sounds as if the Japanese have yet to embrace her as one of their own. If any other Japanese player eg. Nishikori or Nishioka or Sugita had appeared in the final of Indian Wells there's no way it wouldn't have been televised in Japan!

Japanese are known to be pretty nationalistic and patriotic so this surprised me a bit.

 

[Wendigo]

Searched Wikipedia:
It says Naomi Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan. Strange.
To a Haitian father, Leonard François, and a Japanese mother (her name not revealed).
Name of father known, name of mother unknown. Strange

Also, she has an older sister named Mari (not Maria, not Marie). Mari Osaka, also born in Osaka, Japan.
Strange.

whats strange about being born in osaka, having a japanese mother whose name is not known to us, and having a sister named mari?

 

[Sudacafan]

whats strange about being born in osaka, having a japanese mother whose name is not known to us, and having a sister named mari?

Please don't quote me wrong.
Strange is being born in Osaka and at the same time be named Osaka.
Strange is that Wikipedia normally informs the name of parents of people who have an entry, and this girl's mother is unknown.
I thought that Mari was a strange form of Mary, Marie, etc., it was strange to me. Afterwards, someone corrected me saying that it is a Japanese name, my mistake.
I now wonder if Naomi is actually a Japanese name, as the only Naomis I have heard before were the Jamaican model Campbell and the Canadian writer Klein (very different lines of work, aren't they?)
Finally, and after all this, I started to think about Alexis Texas, but it's obviously not her real name.
Please someone post the video with the song Strange, of The Doors.

 

[Vanhool]

According to Japanese law, Osaka has to choose American or Japanese citizenship when she turns 22.

Please choose US, Naomi!

 

[Wendigo]

Please don't quote me wrong.
Strange is being born in Osaka and at the same time be named Osaka.
Strange is that Wikipedia normally informs the name of parents of people who have an entry, and this girl's mother is unknown.
I thought that Mari was a strange form of Mary, Marie, etc., it was strange to me. Afterwards, someone corrected me saying that it is a Japanese name, my mistake.
I now wonder if Naomi is actually a Japanese name, as the only Naomis I have heard before were the Jamaican model Campbell and the Canadian writer Klein (very different lines of work, aren't they?)
Finally, and after all this, I started to think about Alexis Texas, but it's obviously not her real name.
Please someone post the video with the song Strange, of The Doors.

yea, naomi is a japanese name, and in many country its pretty common being named after a city, a nation, a region.

 

[a10best]

This is nonsense. She does speak Japanese and is continuing to learn the language.

She is not very different than many Eastern European players who have trained most of their lives in the United States.

Okay. I'm glad she is speaking and learning it more to represent her country.
It can only be a positive in the long run.

If you're proud enough to represent a country you should at least speak(or try to learn) the primary or secondary language (and Naomi is). In U.S., the main languages are English and Spanish, so knowing, speaking a little bit, or attempting to learn either one is fine. It is easier to learn a second or multiple languages today than decades ago with apps and live online courses.

 

[jm1980]

I think Sharapova has duel citizenship!

What's "duel" citizenship?

 

[Phoenix1983]

She hails from the land of Godzilla, and is likely to evoke similar feelings of fear in her opponents.

 

[Bartelby]

Being a citizen of two countries which are at war ... would be an interesting answer.

What's "duel" citizenship?

 

[Stretchy Man]

Strange is being born in Osaka and at the same time be named Osaka.

Actually that one is strange - Osaka is a very unusual surname in Japan.