When Naomi Osaka won
the Australian Open on January 26th and became the world’s top-ranked female
tennis player, the inhabitants of her mother’s home town of Nemuro, on Japan’s
northernmost island, Hokkaido, celebrated.
That may
not seem strange, but in Japan people are typically considered Japanese only if
they have two Japanese parents, speak fluent Japanese, look the part and “act
Japanese”. Ms Osaka grew up in America and is only hafu (half)
Japanese; her father is Haitian. She is more comfortable speaking English than
Japanese. Her grandfather at first disowned her mother when she told him she
was seeing a foreign man.
Japan may
be becoming more tolerant of those who are different, however
To some
degree it is a question of numbers: 3.4% of married Japanese have a foreign
spouse and three times more foreigners live and work in the country today than
a decade ago.
Since Japan
does not technically allow dual citizenship for those over 22, Ms Osaka will
have to choose in October whether to remain Japanese or give up her
American citizenship.
From The Economist (edited)
