Three years ago, when Ariana Miyamoto, a half-black, half-Japanese woman was crowned Miss Universe Japan, the judges received some criticism online from people who said she did not look sufficiently Japanese.





Baye McNeil, an African-American columnist who writes for the Japan Times about the black experience in Japan and who has lived in the country for 14 years, said the celebration of Osaka presented a racially progressive view that did not align with a messier reality.





“This country prides itself on being homogeneous,” McNeil said. He said that to have a woman of mixed cultural heritage rise in the spotlight placed many Japanese “in an awkward position of sending a message to the world that they’re in a place that everyone knows they’re not.”





But Japan, however slowly, may be changing. The year after Miyamoto won the beauty contest, another mixed-race woman, Priyanka Yoshikawa, took the crown.





Megumi Nishikura, co-director of the documentary “Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan,” said, “Anybody who is able to represent Japan in a public way who is ‘hafu’ will open Japanese minds and hearts to being more accepting.”





“We live in a world where people have a limited view on nationality and race and ethnicity and say that you can only be one, you can’t be more,” added Nishikura, who was raised in Japan by a Japanese father and Irish-American mother and who now lives in New York. “I think Naomi Osaka really presents a very interesting challenge for people who are still attached to these antiquated ideas that you can only be one.”





In Tokyo on Sunday, there were signs those antiquated ideas might be shifting. “I think the definition of what is Japanese is becoming vague,” said Masako Mikami, 52, who works at a gaming software company in the city. “I think Japanese society is changing to become more generous. Naomi Osaka is one of the next generation of Japanese people.”





Shinji Ichinose, 36, who watched the final, said that he had once thought it would be impossible for a Japanese woman to win a Grand Slam title.





Ichinose, who was getting ready to play tennis at dusk Sunday, said he had the perception that Americans or Europeans put more emphasis on nationality than a person’s appearance. “So I think Japan may change to be more like that in a future era,” he said.





Osaka has worked to cultivate her Japanese identity on the circuit. In interviews with Japanese outlets, she answers questions in her imperfect Japanese, and she has talked about her love of manga and green tea.





After her victory, Osaka demonstrated a characteristically Japanese trait when she apologized for her win. “I’m sorry it had to end this way,” Osaka said, acknowledging the contentious decisions against Williams by the umpire. As she thanked the fans, she dipped her head in a bow, also a common practice in Japan.





In an interview with the Japanese public broadcaster, NHK, Osaka answered some questions in Japanese and others in English. In Japanese, she said that she was “a little sad and a little happy” to have defeated Williams. But when an interviewer from the Tokyo Broadcasting System asked how she felt about being Japan’s first Grand Slam champion, she responded in English. “I’m very honored. … I don’t know how to say that in Japanese,” said Osaka from a studio in New York.





Supporters in Japan said they were disappointed that the final had ended in such a storm. “But she really won with her ability,” said Kanako Ozawa, 32, a real estate agent who was hitting balls at a tennis court in central Tokyo on Sunday.





Darryl Wharton-Rigby, an African-American filmmaker from Baltimore who is married to a Japanese woman and has three children, said that Osaka’s win had special resonance and said he felt optimistic about Japan becoming more racially progressive.





“I actually don’t like using the word ‘hafu,’” he said. “I prefer biracial or bicultural because when people say half, it sometimes feels ‘less than.’ You’re only half Japanese, which means you’re not fully Japanese. But I think that that’s a thing that could potentially change with every victory or every person who comes out and says, ‘No, I’m Japanese, even though I have a parent who isn’t from Japan.’”



