Naomi Osaka discusses backlash she received for representing Japan over America

With her new self-titled docuseries "Naomi Osaka" now streaming on Netflix, the Japanese superstar gave some insight into her personal life and how she handles the stress of her newfound superstardom.

The World No.2 will be representing Japan at this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo, but revealed that she has received a lot of backlash from people who criticized her decision to play for the Asian nation instead of USA. Osaka's mother is Japanese and her father is Haitian, she was born in Japan but moved to the US when she was three.

"I've been playing under the Japan flag since I was 14. It was never even a secret that I'm going to play for Japan for the Olympics," she said while discussing the backlash during an episode of the docuseries.

"So I don't choose America and suddenly people are like, 'Your Black card is revoked.' And it's like, African American isn't the only Black, you know? I don't know, I feel like people really don't know the difference between nationality and race because there's a lot of Black people in Brazil, but they're Brazilian."

Read also

2020 Olympic Games Tennis WTA Entry List with Barty, Osaka and Swiatek (last update 18-07)

Although she previously held dual Japanese and American citizenship, Osaka announced that she would be relinquishing her American citizenship in 2019. Under Japan's Nationality Act, those who hold dual citizenship must choose one before their 22nd birthday.

In 2018, Osaka's mother, Tamaki, told The Wall Street Journal that her daughter has deep cultural ties to Japan and made the decision to represent her country of birth early in her career.  

"We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age," her parents stated during the interview. "She was born in Osaka and was brought up in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture. 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."