Thread by @keikoinboston

1. Naomi Osaka has been trending all day. When I first looked at this page it was about how she'd skipped contractual media obligations and might be fined $15K and face other penalties. She's now been fined and withdrawn from the French Open.

twitter.com/i/events/13993…

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1399322037114572804

2. Osaka said in a statement on Twitter a few days ago that she was skipping these appearances for her mental health.
archive.ph/Mz9E0

Her latest statement says she has "suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018".
archive.ph/RDWhh

3. I don't follow tennis or any other sports so don't have an informed opinion on how traumatic press conferences are for elite athletes but I'd like to hear a range of opinions.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1366562801100206082

4. Under "Reactions to the situation", Twitter presents only tweets praising Osaka's decision with one exception — a tweet from a journalist unsure of his opinion but sympathetic to Osaka.

5. While I support anyone doing what they need to do to take care of their mental health it's interesting to see people eager to support this type of victimology narrative when Osaka, a multi-millionaire, is one of the most privileged people on the planet.

6. Most people don't have $15,000 lying around to pay a fine. She did say "I hope the considerable amount that I get fined for this will go towards a mental health charity."

7. This type of donation could be game changing for smaller mental health charities, especially in Japan where they're still behind the West on treatment of people with mental illnesses and societal understanding. If she wanted to make a donation, she could do that directly.

8. $15,000 would be a life-changing amount for a low-income woman struggling with mental illness who can't access treatment.

9. And where is the discussion about professionalism? People who work in offices don't get to say "I'm just going to opt-out of this job responsibility this week because it's detrimental to my mental health." You either suck it up or if necessary, take time off.

10. It's certainly possible that conversations need to be had in tennis and other sports about contractual media obligations but I don't understand the desire to cast a powerful young woman as a victim. She made choices for which she is now dealing with fallout.

11. A good crisis manager could have helped her navigate this more smoothly. It seems that she's either not getting good advice or is choosing to ignore it.

12. For those who think that this thread is trying to downplay mental health issues in the privileged you can read further thoughts on that here. Mental health issues are serious in everyone regardless of income level.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1399461520329920513

13. In worst case scenarios, the consequences of not dealing with mental health issues can be deadly.

Even if there’s no suicide or homicide, the stress for everyone involved and the damage to someone’s future prospects can be tremendous.

14. I’m troubled with the one-sided narrative of Osaka as a victim who was justified in picking and choosing which aspects of her job to do. People of lesser status who have mental illnesses don’t get a pass for this type of behavior.

15. Maybe employers should allow more leeway and understanding for employees with mental illness. That could be a great conversation to have but that’s not the conversation I’m seeing.

16. Twitter highlighting news with only one uniform reaction is part of the problem with social media bubbles.

People need to know that it’s okay to not think and express what everyone else is saying.

17. Reactions from other tennis players who see talking to media as part of the job.

There’s also an embedded video segment with co-hosts Mike Holley and Michael Smith on Peacock’s sports talk show "Brother from Another” discussing Osaka’s decision.

sports.nbcsports.com/2021/05/28/tou…

18. Mats Wilander, a Swedish former world #1 tennis player:

"Why should she be treated any differently to the other players? That's not fair to the other players.”

eurosport.com/tennis/roland-…

19.

"So she definitely has to do it. She has sponsors; she is the highest paid female athlete in the world. So we want to see great champions win, we want to see them celebrate, but we also want to be inspired by great athletes when things are tough.”

20. These quotes were from yesterday before Osaka pulled out of the French Open. Wilander did say that if she doesn’t want to do press, "then don't go and play the tournament.”

21. Wilander also implied this is unfair to Japanese fans. "In Japan, she is absolutely huge, maybe the biggest athlete that any country has ever produced. And they don't get to hear her talk."

22. In a recent interview with The Mainichi, a Japanese daily newspaper, Osaka’s Japanese trainer, Yutaka Nakamura made no direct mention of her mental health but did say that she "became very quiet” after losses on clay courts earlier this month.

mainichi.jp/english/articl…

23. I certainly hope that Naomi will get the professional help that she needs. She has the resources to get top-notch treatment and can hopefully return to playing. But learning how to manage your mental health sometimes means walking away from things you can’t handle.

24. If she finds the off court responsibilities of being a pro athlete too difficult she has the resources to do just about anything she wants to do. She could go to college. She could launch a foundation. She could become and angel investor.

25. It’s possible that she and her team didn’t realize how poorly she was doing but if someone on her team has been preventing her from getting professional help, hopefully they’ll either become educated on the seriousness of depression & anxiety or she’ll make personnel changes.

26. Another piece of context—in March, Osaka ended a 23-match winning streak that had lasted for 13 months. She lost at the Miami Open to Maria Sakkari.

cbssports.com/tennis/news/20…

27. I forgot to read this joint statement from the Grand Slam tournaments about Osaka’s decision to skip her "mandatory media interviews”.

https://twitter.com/rolandgarros/status/1399016499935862785

28. I didn’t realize that Roland-Garros (French Open) reached out to Osaka to "check on her well-being, understand the specifics of her issue and what might be done to address it on site.”

No response from Osaka or her team.

This was not in any of the articles I read.

29. After that "the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open jointly wrote to her to check on her well-being and offer support, underline their commitment to all athletes’ well-being and suggest dialog on the issues.”

No response from Osaka or her team.

30. Rest of the joint statement:

31. I’ve seen commentary that the $15K fine and the mention of future fines and "tougher sanctions including default from the tournament” should she "continue to ignore her media obligations during the tournament” was in effect bullying of a young woman of color.

32. Since I don’t follow tennis I don’t have any ability to evaluate this statement and the wider context. It reads to me like what you would expect to happen to a professional dodging job responsibilities and communication with decision makers.

33. Perhaps if Osaka or her team had responded to the attempts to reach her something else could have been arranged. And maybe more will come out later.

If anyone sees any good commentary on the joint statement, please send it my way.

34. Some more context I didn’t put together as I don’t follow tennis.

https://twitter.com/MG92__2/status/1399602292140085248

35. "Her maiden grand slam win at the 2018 US Open will forever be remembered more for Serena Williams' explosive outburst at chair umpire Carlos Ramos, when she accused him of sexism after warning her for receiving coaching from the stands."

nzherald.co.nz/sport/tennis-t…

36.

"Osaka was reduced to tears during the trophy presentation as the New York crowd booed relentlessly, upset at how Williams had been treated."

37. If you’ve made it this far, apologies for how disjointed this thread is. I didn’t do a lot of research before I tweeted my initial thoughts and then I kept adding to it throughout the day while talking to people and learning more about the situation and the reaction.

38. If I have time this week I may add to the thread later.

39. I always have mixed feelings about commenting on breaking news because inevitably I get these tweets.

It’s folks like this who make people afraid to express their opinions in public.

40. I do hesitate to comment on things happening in areas I know nothing about—in this case tennis & sports in general.

But I write about Japan/Japanese people, mental health, and media/social media literacy so I decided to comment. 🤷🏻‍♀️

41. Thanks to the person who sent me this critical piece from sports writer @RobParkerFS1. He lays it all out and doesn’t mince words.

deadspin.com/naomi-osaka-ha…

@RobParkerFS1 42. A few people have asked me why these media appearances are mandatory for athletes. Parker gets into that.

"Talking to the media and selling the game to fans is part of her job.”

"When you blow off the media, you’re telling fans they don’t matter and don’t count."

43. Parker also points out the athlete-media relations is a two-way street and points out that Osaka was happy to talk to the media about her activism last year.

"These same athletes who dislike the media will invite them to trumpet their good deeds in the community."

44. Others have noted that Osaka is not the first athlete to bail on contractual media obligations. Parker mentions that basketball players Michael Jordan & Kyrie Irving have both done this, received fines, and never done it again.

45. Counterpoint to Parker’s piece—Retired NFL player Chris Kluwe fully support’s Osaka’s decision to skip her contractual media obligations. This was published on 5/28/21 before she was fined & withdraw from the French Open so it doesn’t address that.

https://twitter.com/NBCNewsTHINK/status/1398734389123588096?s=20

46. Kluwe proposes that the system be changed so that pro athletes are financially incentivized to opt-in to media appearances rather than be fined for opting out.

47.

"I promise you that there are more than enough athletes who would want to talk to the media, even after a loss, if it were not mandatory, & who would be happy to answer the same question rephrased 10 ways if it meant they picked up an extra couple of bucks here and there."

48. To follow up on Mats Wilander’s comments about Japanese fans that I quoted upthread:

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1399513087842177031

49. AFP’s round up of Japanese fan sympathy for Osaka.

"Reaction in Japan was largely sympathetic, with one Twitter user urging Osaka to "take a good, long break”.

"Japanese fans urged her to take care of herself first and foremost."

france24.com/en/live-news/2…

50.

"Former tennis player Ai Sugiyama told a morning show she hoped Osaka's actions could "make a splash and create an opportunity to talk about athlete's mental health", the Sports Hochi reported."

51.

"There's a big difference between people's personalities, and I think we need to consider things on a case-by-case basis," said Sugiyama, who reached a career-high number eight world ranking. ...

52.

… "I think the system where you absolutely have to turn up and you're fined if you don't is a little outdated.”"

53. Found this article earlier today. It was published on 5/31.

Naomi Osaka’s older sister, Mari Osaka, made a long post to r/tennis on Reddit that has since been deleted. It was replaced with a post saying “I fucked up” which is also now deleted.

foxsports.com.au/tennis/french-…

54. Ben Rothenberg, senior editor at @racqetmagazine confirmed Mari Osaka made the post. Screenshots in his thread below.

Archive of original: web.archive.org/web/2021053020…

https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1399146005120040961

55. Mari confirmed that Naomi was having a hard time after the loss in Rome.

"When she lost in Rome r1 she was not ok mentally.”

She added that “a family member” "remarked that [Naomi's] bad at clay”.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1399514881628557317

56. Although Naomi’s statement mentioned:

“long bouts of depression”

“social anxiety”

and

“huge waves of anxiety”

all of which can be clinically diagnosed, ...

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1399456576998723589

57. … Mari’s post seemed to imply that Naomi doesn’t have a mental health “disorder”.

"So many people are picky on this term thinking you need to have depression or have some sort of disorder to be able to use the term mental health."

58. Mari’s post describes what mental health clinicians would call “avoidance behavior”.

"So her solution was to block everything out. No talking to people who is going to put doubt in her mind.”

There is treatment for this.

dictionary.apa.org/avoidance-beha…

59. Mari appears to have taken the original post down due to negative replies. You can see the replies here. I haven’t had time to read them.

reddit.com/r/tennis/comme…

https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1399152546644729858

60. It’s unclear if Naomi has been diagnosed with any mental illness and what, if any help she’s receiving, although it seems clear she’s struggling. If she hasn’t been able to get a diagnosis and treatment there could be cultural factors at play.

61. Naomi was born in Chūō-ku, Osaka where she lived until she was 3 years old. After that her parents moved the family to the US. Both are immigrants—her father is from Jacmel, Haiti and her mother is from Hokkaido, Japan.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Osa…

62. Both Japanese and Haitian culture and healthcare are behind the West in understanding and acceptance of mental illnesses and the people who have them.

63. Immigrants often bring their conceptions of mental illness with them and pass them on to their children. I don’t have time to look up a source to cite for this. I’m speaking from personal experience and anecdotes I’ve heard about Japanese immigrants/diaspora people.

64.

"Barriers to mental health care in Japan: results from the World Mental Health Japan Survey” (open access)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

65.

"Haitian-Americans' Conceptualization of Mental Illness: The Role of Acculturation, Ethnic Identification, and Ethnic Group Appraisal”

Appears to require a login. Not sure if it can be requested from the Pace Library.

digitalcommons.pace.edu/dissertations/…

66. I don’t have time to do a deep dive into issues around immigrant/AAPI views on mental illness & treatment but may write something later this month if there’s interest. Let me know if you’d like to learn more about this topic. My DMs are open if you prefer not to reply here.

67. Just saw a translation of a quote from Osaka's Belgian coach Wim Fissette. The original interview is in German in Der Spiegel and is paywalled for me.

spiegel.de/sport/tennis/t…

68. Per AFP translation, Osaka "is not boycotting the media "for herself alone", but is "concerned with fundamental issues -- she wants to bring about change”."

france24.com/en/live-news/2…