TOKYO, Sept 8, 2018 (News Wires) - Naomi Osaka is hogging the headlines for all the right reasons in her native land after she became the first Japanese player to reach a Grand Slam singles final, with one major newspaper hailing her as "a new heroine Japan can be proud of". The 20-year-old, who faces idol and 23-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams in the US Open final Saturday, is also helping break new ground in Japan due to her multiracial identity: the daughter of a Haitian father and Japanese mother. She's one of several young mixed-race athletes who are challenging Japan's traditional self-image as a racially homogenous country, including sprinter Asuka Cambridge and baseball player Yu Darvish. Osaka was born in Japan but left when she was three years old and raised in the United States. She holds both Japanese and American citizenship, and is far more adept in English than she is in her mother tongue. Yet many Japanese appear to have embraced the endearing Osaka, charmed by her off-court genuineness as much as her on-court ferocity. "Her Japanese isn't that good, right? But the way she tries to speak in Japanese is so cute," said Yukie Ohashi, a 41-year-old Tokyo resident. "My impression of her is that she sticks to her beliefs and is powerful."
