Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka, who is Haitian American and Japanese, has been public about the racism she has confronted in Japan, which is notorious for its problems with xenophobia.
Osaka, who was named the world’s highest-earning female athlete earlier this year, is celebrated in the country of her birth, but her rise to tennis stardom revealed problematic attitudes in some sections of Japanese society. An animated ad by one of Osaka’s sponsors, the Cup Noodle maker Nissin, portrayed her with pale skin, wavy brown hair and Caucasian facial features, while a standup comedy act said she “looked sunburned” and “needed some bleach”.
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