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© 2020 AFPNaomi Osaka tops Serena Williams as world's highest-paid female athlete
By JOSE JORDAN NEW YORK©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2020 AFP
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FizzBit
Looks like the manager switch is paying off. Bicultural? Can she speak Japanese?
Strangerland
What gave you the idea that being able to speak Japanese is required to be bicultural?
Strangerland
But to answer your questions: yes and yes.
sensei258
Japan's Naomi Osaka has become the world's highest-paid female athlete
Funny how she wasn't considered "Japan's" until she became a champion. She gave up her US citizenship, something many people dream of having, just to compete in the Olympics. Now what?
Strangerland
Um yeah. Do you see press releases announcing various bicultural Japanese children are "Japan's" regularly? I've never seen one.
You seem to think that the country should have made some official announcement, and that it should have been made before anyone knew who she was.
You are OUTRAGED. And you are right to be so, as this is the Age of Outrage. Someone is always wrong about something!
People keep using 'logic' to come to this conclusion, ignoring that it can't be logically concluded.
sensei258
Back to your old tricks huh. Reading my mind and then commenting on your own assumptions. I am most certainly not outraged, and the thought of an official announcement never crossed my mind until you made it up
Strangerland
I came to the impression from reading your text. We have not spoken in person. So if I am under that assumption, it means you didn't word your post well, as it would seem that you misconveyed your actual feelings, instead coming across as outrage.
Then how exactly would Japan have declared Naomi Osaka "theirs" before she got famous? You criticized them for not declaring her "theirs" until she got famous, so by what logic could they have avoided that "mistake" in the first place?
sensei258
Some people just like hearing themselves talk
Mr Kipling
She didn’t “give up” her US citizenship. Japan doesn’t allow dual nationality. The US does!
thepersoniamnow
Well bi cultural is something that I am.
I actually have one parent whos a half making me a quarter...
Are the people squabbling above actually mixed or from several places themselves?
Funnily enough the most angry argumentative people on this topic are almost always those who don’t and never experienced it.
They are mad for others and their kidz etc.
sensei258
@ Kipling - six of one, half a dozen of another. It's all semantics. She chose to compete for Japan, and in order to do so gave up her US citizenship.
sensei258
She was not forced. She had her eye on the Olympics, but you can be sure she was thinking about sponsorship money
Numan
Financially, she has made the best decision. As far as her career, she has taken the path of least resistance. She would have had a hard time competing for a spot on the US Olympic team, and her family probably realized that it would be hard to get the same kind of attention and endorsement deals being another American woman of color particularly of African descent in predominately white sport.
I also think she does not have that kind of mental toughness to endure what Serena and Venus has endure in their careers. It is is one of the reasons why they are some of the all-time greats and in Serena's case the best female tennis player of all-time, and she isn't done yet. For example, Tiger has a mostly strong following because he has always downplayed his African-American roots for a mostly white fan-base. It wasn't until his arrest that he may have realized how flimsy that support is for him. The Williams sister have never downplayed their roots. That is where a lot of the hate stems from. It also explains Sharapova's and Kournikova's financial success in the US. Two kind of good players who were not worthy enough to hold the Williams sister's tennis bags.
Osaka chose her Japanese citizenship with mild international success and very few Japanese peers; thus , she is raking in the endorsements because she is Japan's only shot at any success in tennis for the moment. If she never win another major event ever again. She will still have an entire country with all endorsement deals behind her. All the Japanese companies will support her, and any foreign company wanting a bigger stake in the Japanese market will offer her an endorsement too.
Like I said before, her mental toughness and taking the easier path is why she won't live up to her athletic potential unless she makes some major life choices. Maybe, her sister will learn from her mistakes and do better. Financially, Osaka is set!
Strangerland
No she didn't.
bass4funk
Good for her! Make dat money!
sensei258
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/tennis-star-naomi-osaka-gives-u-s-citizenship-represent-japan-n1065111
Yes, she did
sensei258
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/10/10/tennis/naomi-osaka-japanese-citizenship-tokyo-olympics/#.XsigoWSRVow
Yes, she did
Numan
@Strangerland
You are totally wrong. She chose to relinquish her US citizenship with her career in mind. Compete in the Olympics which will be a sure in representing Japan and all the endorsement deals that come with the only female Japanese tennis player with a viable chance of a medal.
She is taking the Sharapova route. Having all the advantages of living and training in the US while maintaining citizenship in another country for her career.
Strangerland
Again, no she didn't. People keep making this claim. It's a false claim.
Strangerland
That article points out she chose Japanese citizenship. She did. The article doesn't say she gave up her American citizenship. She didn't.
Pukey2
I'm wondering, are a lot of the endorsements and money coming from Japanese companies like noodle makers? You can be very successful, financially, and have no other success outside Japan or East Asia. The tone-death singer Hamasaki comes to mind. Mega rich, but totally unknown outside the region.
Just like how grandpa didn't want anything to do with her or her parents until she started getting a bit rich. Obvious or what.
tooheysnew
Why would you say her manager switch has paid off ?
She has won nothing since, losing her #1 ranking in the meantime (in fact dropping down to #10 )
onsenandbeer2013
She did give up her US citizenship... Nice try though.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/tennis-star-naomi-osaka-gives-u-s-citizenship-represent-japan-n1065111
FizzBit
The contracts to sell her face and popularity = paid off.
invalid CSRF
Strangerland
That article does not say she gave it up.
Can anyone show anything that says she gave it up? Not something that says she intends to (as must be declared to the Japanese government), but actually gave it up?
Nope, you can't. She didn't.
commanteer
A tax (sometimes double) on all global income for her and her kids (even if they never set foot in the US, no matter where they live) for life. Can't imagine why anyone would want to give that up....
Under the headline: "The dual citizen has already begun the process of renouncing her U.S. citizenship." It will cost her quite a bit. The land of the free doesn't like it when people try to leave, and makes it the most expensive and difficult process of any developed country. Funny that - for a free country, I mean.
commanteer
I take that back. The article is quoting her - and it is something she would have to say to satisfy Japanese law (and public opinion). If she plans on living in the US in the future, it would make sense just to say that and do nothing.
Numan
@Strangerland
but.......
Unless you are implying that a well known sports figure is openly defying the Japanese legal system.
Your eager willingness to defend all things Japanese has painted yourself in a corner on this one.
BackpackingNepal
Totally unfair. The income gaps between the Top players and the rest is extremely unacceptable.
Anyone born in poor countries to have a a dream to be one of the top player in the world is too rare..kind of like lottery..if u could able to find a gold in the ocean. Only those born in rich nations will be able to have such dream come true because first they're lucky to be born there and second they have all the facilities and nutrients all the time and they're the ones to become rich.
commanteer
Obviously not openly defying, since she said she is in the process of renouncing. She could be practicing the time-proven Japanese tradition of dragging one's feet while promising to do something one doesn't really want to do.
Cognac
She even can't speak japanese, but after becoming a champion Japan gave attention to her
ridicolous
fxgai
She is a global star, not an Asian star.
Why would she be an Asian star more than she might be a Caribbean star?
Because of a booklet she got from the govt here?
It’s odd that people would dream of having that so they can be obliged to pay taxes to Uncle Sam even if you don’t live there, but yeah some people prefer it to other citizenships nonetheless. I think there are more attractive ones personally.
Strangerland
On the contrary, I'm pointing out that her actions are satisfying the Japanese legal system.
Anyone who knows the nuances of the system can clearly see this. Comanteer figured it out above:
But others who clearly do not know how the system works, feel qualified to declare she has given up her American citizenship.
It hasn't happened, and I would be quite surprised if she ever gives it up, since she doesn't need to by Japanese law. She has already satisfied the requirements of the law with her declaration.
This is why no one has been able to show her actually giving up her citizenship, they can only find articles that have made the same mistake as posters here, in mistakenly extrapolating her declaration to renounce American citizenship as equating to actually having done it.
Strangerland
She can, and is studying. In fact, I'd bet she speaks more Japanese for the amount of time she's spent in Japan than the majority of foreigners who come here.
But hey, don't let that stop disparaging her.
Novenachama
Simply put you can be a dual citizen in Japan and America until you reach 21 years, after that age, you have to choose the citizenship you want to keep to make it legal.
Strangerland
In putting it simply, you actually put it incorrectly.
The law is that one must declare an intention to give up ones nationality. There is no requirement to actually follow through, nor is there any mechanism to do anything if the person does not give up the other citizenship.
Osaka did what she must - declare that she intends to give up her America citizenship (there’s a form). Other than the baseless claims here, there is nothing saying she actually did give it up.