KYODO NEWS - Jan 23, 2019 - 23:19 | Sports, All, Japan

A Japanese food company which is a sponsor of 2018 U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka removed video advertisements from YouTube on Wednesday following a dispute over the skin color of a character featuring the tennis star.

Nissin Foods Holdings Co. created two pieces of animated video aimed at promoting its signature product Cup Noodle featuring characters of Osaka as well as Kei Nishikori, another Japanese tennis player the Tokyo company supports.

(Photo taken from the YouTube channel of the Nissin Foods group shows anime characters featuring tennis players Kei Nishikori, left, and Naomi Osaka in a video advertisement)

But Nissin chose to stop running them at the request of IMG USA, Osaka's management agency in the United States, after some questioned Nissin's creations, saying the color of Osaka's character was lightened.

Nissin denied it had intended to make the skin color white and apologized for having caused confusion.

"Going forward, we will continue to hold respect for diversity, and will carefully consider campaign contents," Nissin spokesman Daisuke Okabayashi said.

The dispute emerged as Osaka, a U.S.-based 21-year-old player whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese, advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open.

According to Okabayashi, Nissin consulted with IMG Japan, the Japanese arm of Osaka's agency, in making the anime pieces. "We confirmed with Ms. Osaka and her team utilizing the original drawings for the campaign," he said.

But Nissin received a note from the U.S. agency that "the campaign content was not shared between IMG Japan and IMG USA," he added.

Nissin said manga artist Takeshi Konomi, known for his big hit "The Prince of Tennis," was involved in the creation of the anime pieces.

Konomi said in his tweet that he drew pictures featuring Nishikori and Osaka at the request of Nissin under the project but was not involved in character designing for the anime.