The 20-year-old has dual nationality — Japanese and American — and under Japanese law will have to choose one by the time she turns 22 on Oct. 16 next year, although that regulation is rarely enforced. While the Justice Ministry officially has the right to warn dual nationals to choose one, it has never done so, and the Foreign Ministry has said it does not track dual nationals.

“I’m so proud of her,” said Hiromi Shibata, a 32-year-old Tokyo resident and tennis fan. “It doesn’t really matter what flag she represents because that doesn’t change the fact that she has Japanese heritage, but deep down I’m hoping she will play for Japan at the next Olympics.”

Osaka, whose world ranking rose 12 spots to No. 7 on Monday, made history on Sept. 8 in New York by becoming the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating decorated veteran Serena Williams in straight sets. Although Osaka was born in Japan, she moved to the United States with her family — including her Japanese mother and Haitian-American father — at age 3. She lacks confidence in her Japanese language ability as a result, and is often assisted by an interpreter during news conferences and other events here. She is among a growing number of prominent athletes representing Team Japan who have fathers from overseas.

They include 23-year-old judoka and 2016 Rio Olympic champion Mashu Baker, whose father is American; sprinters Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, 19, who has a Ghanaian father, and Asuka Cambridge, 25, whose father is Jamaican; and 26-year-old javelin thrower Genki Dean, whose father is British. There are some for whom this raises a question over the athletes’ identities as Japanese. But many in the nation welcome their contribution to raising the country’s sporting presence in the world of sports.

Kohei Kawashima, professor of sports sciences at Waseda University, emphasized the importance of embracing a “broader, multicultural” notion of what makes someone Japanese. As for the possibility that Osaka might choose to represent the United States in the future, Kawashima said, “I think it’s best for society to respect” any decision she makes.

Osaka is said to have expressed her intention to represent Japan at the Tokyo Games.

But Shukan Shincho, a Japanese weekly magazine, reported in the spring — after Osaka won her first WTA title in March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California —that tennis officials here are worried people within U.S. tennis circles might try again to lure the young star, who has spent most of her life in the States, just as they did two years ago. Back then, the Shincho report indicated, people involved in U.S. tennis offered to “look after her in various aspects” but Osaka chose to continue to represent Japan.

That apprehension may have been amplified now that she’s won the U.S. Open and taken the tennis world by storm. She was unphased by facing her idol in the women’s final at Flushing Meadows, in front of a crowd that was overwhelmingly partial to the 36-year-old Williams — who lost her cool during the match and repeatedly confronted the umpire after she was given multiple code violations.

Speaking mostly in English at a news conference in Yokohama on Thursday, hours after arriving from the United States, Osaka didn’t seem concerned despite the attention some have paid to her background.

“I don’t really think too much about my identity or whatever,” she said when asked what she thinks of overseas media reporting about her Japanese roots. “For me, I’m just me. And I know that the way that I was brought up — I don’t know — people tell me I act kind of Japanese so I guess there’s that.”

Tokyo will host the Summer Olympics for the second time from July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020, and the tennis competition will be held on hard courts — the same surface as the U.S. Open.

Regardless of which national team Osaka represents, the new darling of women’s tennis, who studies Japanese by watching dramas and listening to music, knows what she will be aiming for in two years’ time.

“I’m very excited and I know everyone’s very excited that the Olympics are going to be held in Tokyo,” she said. “I feel like it’s every athlete’s dream to play in the Olympics so I’m looking forward to that a lot, and I feel like if you play then of course you would want to go for gold so that would be my goal, too.”

 

More than 7,000 members of the Self-Defense Forces and other emergency service rescuers continue their search for survivors.

 

Also Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Hokkaido to assess the extent of the damage.
Hokkaido Railway Co. (JR Hokkaido) resumed some express train operations — among them services from Sapporo to Abashiri and Asahikawa — that had been fully suspended.

The earthquake, which struck near the town of Atsuma on Thursday, destroyed houses, cut off roads and caused massive widespread landslides that buried parts of towns.

Although located next to the hardest-hit town of Atsuma, southeast of Chitose, none of Abira’s 8,131 residents died in the disaster, which killed a total of 41 people.

 

But the quake — which reached the top level of 7 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale and registered an upper 6 in Abira — has sown uncertainty about the futures of many who lived there.

Yasuhiro Watanabe, 56, who has since moved into his brother’s home in Chitose, visited Abira on Tuesday in order to clean up and assess the damage to the two-story house he has shared with his Luxembourg-born wife for 22 years.

The home survived the quake with a number of small cracks in the walls, but he said it would no longer be habitable because it sits at the foot of an unstable mountainside that is believed to face a serious landslide risk if another powerful quake hits.

“If a landslide occurs, it will engulf my entire house,” he said. “I thought I could move back home after the quake, but I may not ever be able to come back here again.”

An evacuation order has been issued for the area where Watanabe’s home stands, and the town is checking the potential for future landslides.

A landslide occurred just 20 meters away from his house, and the nearby Hayakita Junior School has been closed due to severe damage and the added danger posed by the fractured mountainside. It is unclear whether the school will ever reopen.

Watanabe, a Hokkaido native, moved to Abira 22 years ago with his wife and bought the house, which has easy access to Hama-Atsuma Beach east of Tomakomai. He has enjoyed surfing there three times a week.

Watanabe said the quake made him feel he was going through hell.

“I really can’t describe the jolt in words. It felt like I was hit by a car speeding at 40 kph — from the ground as well as from the side,” he explained. “I have experienced … quakes many times during my life in Hokkaido, but this event was incomparably strong.”

Watanabe, who was sleeping in his room on the first floor, rushed upstairs to help his wife, Eveline, whose bedroom was on the second floor. He was in such a hurry that he did not notice he had cut his feet on shattered glass from the bookshelf doors. “I knew my feet felt wet, so at first I thought water was leaking somewhere. But I later realized it was my blood. I guess I was so flustered at the time I didn’t even feel pain.”

When he got to Eveline, he found she was bleeding slightly from her forehead, hit by a falling lamp.

The quake had knocked out the power and disrupted the water supply, so the couple boiled tea and cooked noodles using stockpiled water and a gas stove. They stayed inside for a whole day, using candles at night. But with supplies starting to run out, they moved to Chitose on Friday.

“We could have stayed at an evacuation center in a school near my house, but my wife was getting depressed, so we asked my brother to let us stay at his house instead,” said Watanabe.

The calamity has also cast a shadow over the life of Hiroko Tanaka, an Abira resident who lived alone.

On the day of the quake, she evacuated to Hayakita Elementary School, which served as a shelter, but had to briefly visit a hospital after her blood pressure rose to as high as 177.

“I have never had such high blood pressure before,” Tanaka said. “Now I cannot even take a bath at the school because I’m worried about raising my blood pressure. I’d like to go outside to unwind, but the officials have asked me to stay inside the school.”

What mostly bothers Tanaka is that she cannot sleep well at the evacuation center. “I try hard to sleep, but when I wake up and check the clock, only 20 minutes have passed,” she said.

As of Tuesday, about 20 evacuees were staying at the school. But with the school reopening Wednesday, they had to move to another evacuation center.

“I lost my husband more than two decades ago and my son is living in Tokyo, so I don’t have anyone to rely on here,” Tanaka said.

Electric power was restored in Abira on Saturday, but it would take at least a week to restore water supply, according to the town.

Volunteers have joined efforts to rebuild the residents’ lives. A volunteer center opened Monday, with around 450 people registered by midday Tuesday. Those wishing to help can apply at the website and will be asked to do jobs relevant to their skills and qualifications.

Watanabe believes he is among the lucky ones — in Atsuma, 36 people died in massive landslides. “My wife and I are alive, at least. That’s what matters the most.”

In an interview, he kept a smile on his face and showed a Hawaiian shaka sign. But there was a moment when he could not hold back his tears, saying he was at the low point of his life.

“My mother died in August, and I’m still trying to recover from that loss,” he lamented. “Now I might lose my house.”

His wife, who has been increasingly feeling unwell since the quake, will soon fly back to Luxembourg because she no longer feels safe in Hokkaido. Watanabe believes it is difficult to continue living in Abira but plans to stay in Hokkaido for the time being.

“My wife wants me to come with her, but I cannot just abandon everything here,” said Watanabe.

Then he smiled: “Well, I’m at the bottom, but it can only go up from here.”