Opinion | Rui Hachimura, Naomi Osaka and Japan’s Olympics team are busting myths about its national identity

Articles about Japan have a tendency to strengthen outdated platitudes to explain Japanese individuals, typically utilizing adjectives resembling well mannered, shy, sort, conventional — and homogenous. Think about readers’ shock, then, after they turned on the tv to observe the Opening Ceremonies of Tokyo 2020, solely to search out {that a} nation they’ve been instructed is a haven of homogeneity had chosen NBA rising star Rui Hachimura as one in every of its flag bearers and had given the glory of lighting the Olympic cauldron to tennis champion Naomi Osaka. Each are figures a lot of the Japanese public would classify as both “kokujin” (Black) or “gaikokujin” (un-Japanese) with out a second’s hesitation in the event that they weren’t well-known. But the Olympics are highlighting simply how false such stereotypes are.