this has been stated several times on here but i don't see anything to support this and everything i read contradicts this. from her wiki page:
Naomi Osaka was born on October 16, 1997, in Chūō-ku, Osaka in Japan to Tamaki Osaka and Leonard François.[1] Her mother is from Nemuro of Hokkaido, Japan, and her father is from Jacmel, Haiti. She has an older sister named Mari who is a former professional tennis player. The two girls were given their mother's family name for practical reasons when the family lived in Japan. Osaka's parents met when her father was visiting Hokkaido while he was a college student in New York.[2][3]
When Osaka was three years old, her family moved from Japan to Valley Stream, New York on Long Island to live with her father's parents. Her father was inspired to teach his daughters how to play tennis by watching the Williams sisters compete at the 1999 French Open. Having little experience as a tennis player himself, he sought to emulate how Richard Williams trained his daughters to become two of the best players in the world, despite having never played the sport. François remarked that "the blueprint was already there. I just had to follow it," with regard to the detailed plan Richard had developed for his daughters. He began coaching Naomi and Mari once they settled in the United States.[2] In 2006, her family moved to Florida when she was eight or nine years old so that they would have better opportunities to train. She practiced on the Pembroke Pines public courts.[2] When she was 15 years old, she began working with Patrick Tauma at the ISP Academy.[4] In 2014, she moved to the Harold Solomon Tennis Academy.[5] She later trained at the ProWorld Tennis Academy.[6]
Although Osaka was raised in the United States, her parents decided that their daughters would represent Japan. They said, "We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age. 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."[6] This decision may have also been motivated by a lack of interest from the United States Tennis Association (USTA) when she was still a young player.[2] The USTA later offered her the opportunity to train at their national training center in Boca Raton when she was 16 years old, but she declined.
her parents chose japan and japan never "sponsored her." i do find it remarkable that her father, without a background in tennis, was able to replicate what Richard Williams did with the Williams sisters. it also has been thrown around on here that her father was awol but the facts are that he was absolutely critical in her development as a young tennis star so props to him.
