Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka is a professional tennis player. The child of a Japanese mother and a Haitian American father, she has won four Grand Slam titles, winning the Australian Open and the US Open twice each. She has also used her platform to bring national and international attention to the Black Lives Matter movement and athlete mental health.

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With her parents (via)

For Osaka, the five years on Long Island evoke cultural memories too. “I grew up surrounded by both Haitian and Japanese culture,” she says. Her father’s parents, who spoke no English, filled the air with Haitian Creole and the aroma of spicy Haitian stews. Her mother spoke to her and her sister in Japanese, preparing seaweed-and-rice-ball snacks for them at school and dressing them in kimonos for international day.

- From an interview with the New York Times, August 2018

With her father, sister, mother, sister, and family friends (via)

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"Japanese culture? I kind of love everything about it. I love the food. Everyone's really nice. There's just a lot about Japan that's really cool. … And Haiti, if you've ever met a Haitian person, they are just really positive, and literally if you're friends with them, then they will do anything for you. So I think that's something that is like a really good trait, and I'm really happy that my grandparents and my dad's side of the family is like that.”

- From a press conference after her US Open quarterfinal victory, September 2018

With her sister, mother, and father (via)

“Maybe it’s because they can’t really pinpoint what I am. So it’s like anybody can cheer for me.”

“I always think that they’re surprised that I’m Japanese. So like the fact that there was like Japanese flags and stuff, it was like really touching.”

- From an interview with the New York Times, January 2016

With her mother after her US Open victory in 2018 (via)

With her parents after her US Open victory in 2018 (via)

Osaka was asked if she's a "new type of Japanese" — mixed race and representing three cultures.

"For me, it's just who I am," she said. "When someone asks me a question like that, it really throws me off because then I really have to think about it. I don't know. I don't really think that I'm three separate — like mixes of whatever. I just think that I'm me."

- From a profile in USA Today, September 2018

With her mother and father (via)

With her mother (via)

"I’m just trying to put a platform out for all the Japanese people that look like me and live in Japan, and when they go to a restaurant, they get handed an English menu, even though it’s just a little microaggression."

"She was talking with another Japanese girl, and they didn’t know that I was listening [or that] I spoke Japanese. Her friend asked her who she was playing, so she said, 'Osaka.' And her friend says, ‘Oh, that Black girl. Is she supposed to be Japanese?’ And then the girl that I was playing was like, ‘I don’t think so.' I remember that specifically because, yeah, I sometimes feel like a lot of people think that way about me."

- From an interview with the Wall Street Journal, August 2020

With her sister and mother (via)