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    Sweden Beats Japan to Reach Women’s World Cup Semifinals

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    Sweden followed up its elimination of the United States by holding off Japan, the last former winner in the field.A Women’s World Cup of change, of unexpected early departures and tantalizing arrivals, has completed its upending of certainty and tradition.No former champion remains in the tournament with two rounds to play.Gone prematurely are the United States, with its four world championships, and Germany, with two. Ousted is Norway, the 1995 victor. And now Japan, the 2011 winner, has exited in the quarterfinals with a 2-1 defeat to Sweden on Friday in Auckland, New Zealand.Of course, it would be highly inaccurate to consider Sweden an arriviste. It has participated in all nine Women’s World Cups, finishing second in 2003 and third three times. But it has never won a major tournament and longs to be a first-time champion.Sweden will face Spain in the semifinals after smothering Japan’s versatile attack in the first half and then defending for its tournament life in the second. It built what seemed a secure lead early in the second half by scoring twice indirectly on its specialty, set pieces, then held on as Japan, desperate and energized, made a fierce, if futile, charge.Defender Amanda Ilestedt opened the scoring for Sweden. It was her fourth goal of the tournament.Saeed Khan/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJapan, which had scored 14 goals in its first four matches and seemed a decent pick as the best team left in the tournament, did not manage a shot in the first half. It awakened as the exit door loomed, creating furious chances in the second half. But it will long regret a missed penalty kick in the 75th minute.“We fought so hard because we wanted it,” Japan’s captain, Saki Kumagai, said through tears. “We want to go to the next round, of course.”Sweden’s victory, Spain’s first trip to the semifinals and Japan’s exit seemed in keeping with the spirit of a World Cup with the tournament’s biggest-ever field, the highest attendance at this stage and the most receptive embrace of the newly risen and revealing ambitions of teams like Colombia, Jamaica, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco.Finally, FIFA can begin to say with some legitimacy that the Women’s World Cup offers an event of global, not merely regional or entrenched, possibility. The other side of the draw is a similar reflection of that growth: Australia will face France, and England, the reigning European champion, will play Colombia.Honoka Hayashi pounced on a loose ball and beat Sweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic, but Japan was left to rue other missed chances.Phil Walter/Getty ImagesOn Friday, Sweden pressed high through the first half to suffocate Japan’s attacks. But when it possessed the ball, Sweden was patient, using short passes to maintain possession and looking for a long ball to take advantage of its height and aerial skills.In the 32nd minute, Sweden’s set-piece mastery delivered a scrappy goal. Six of its 11 goals in the tournament have come directly or indirectly from set pieces — four from corner kicks. This time, midfielder Kosovare Asllani’s free kick rattled around in the penalty area, and the defender Magdalena Eriksson kept the play alive with three jabs at the ball. Finally, it fell to her fellow center back, Amanda Ilestedt, who scored from just inside the six-yard box.“I thought, ‘I’m just going to put it away now,’” Ilestedt said. “So that was a great feeling.”Even before that, however, Sweden had set a physical tone against the smaller, younger Japanese players.“They hadn’t played, like, a physical team until they played us,” said the Swedish substitute Sofia Jakobsson, who plays for the San Diego Wave in the National Women’s Soccer League. “We are bigger than them and could go into harder tackles.”Riko Ueki sent her penalty kick off the crossbar, one of several narrow misses by Japan in the second half.Buda Mendes/Getty ImagesAs the second half opened, Japan’s goalkeeper, Ayaka Yamashita, pushed a shot just wide from the charging Johanna Kaneryd, giving Sweden a corner kick. Fuka Nagano handled the ball as the corner sailed into the crowd in front of Japan’s goal, and after a video review, Sweden was awarded a penalty kick. Filippa Angeldal slotted the ball low and to the left, giving Sweden a 2-0 lead.It was not a safe one.“Something happened,” Jakobsson said. “I don’t know if they were growing into the game or we were becoming more tired.”After playing more defensive-minded in the first half, Japan’s attack was energized by the substitute Jun Endo. Sweden had expected a vigorous comeback, with Eriksson warning before that match that Japan’s attack could “come from anywhere and they will never stop.” Her comment proved prophetic.Hana Takahashi and Japan mounted a furious push in the final 20 minutes.Andrew Cornaga/Associated PressIn the 75th minute, Japan won a penalty kick when the substitute forward Riko Ueki had her heel clipped by Sweden’s Madelen Janogy. But Ueki’s shot clanged off the crossbar, and her header on the rebound looped high over the goal.It was suggested afterward to Sweden’s left back, Jonna Andersson, that her team was living a charmed existence in the knockout rounds, having survived a penalty shootout only five days earlier to eliminate the United States.Andersson smiled and said she preferred to believe it was the imposing presence of Sweden’s superb goalkeeper, Zecira Musovic, not luck, that had made the difference again, at least on Ueki’s attempt. “Maybe it’s a good goalkeeper that takes some energy or disturbs the penalty taker,” Andersson said.In the 87th minute, Japan finally scored on a rebound by Honoka Hayashi after a failed clearance by Sweden gifted her an easy shot at Musovic. But not even 10 minutes of added time were enough to find a tying goal.Japan was gone. And a first-time Women’s World Cup champion waits its crowning moment.“I think we have the team to go all the way,” Andersson said. “And now we are one step closer.” More

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      Is Japan the Best Team Left in the World Cup?

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      Champions in 2011, the team returned to the final in the next tournament and then fell behind the world’s best teams. It’s back, and playing like a champion.After the United States and seven European teams reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup four years ago, it was widely assumed that soccer’s global power base would remain stalled like a weather front in those regions four years later.But this is a tournament of surprise, upended expectation and cracks in the foundation of women’s soccer tradition. The United States and Germany, ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, with six world championships between them, were sent home early and stunned.Five European teams remain, but it is Japan that might be the most impressive contender, a sagging power suddenly revived and the only team left standing to have won a World Cup.With unity of movement, a mostly unsolvable defense and tactical flexibility, Nadeshiko, as the team is known, has delivered 14 goals and conceded only one in four matches ahead of Friday’s meeting with Sweden in the quarterfinals in Auckland, New Zealand. Hinata Miyazawa has been a revelation at midfield, scoring five goals in this World Cup — the most of any player — after scoring only four times in 22 previous appearances.Hinata Miyazawa, left, during team practice in Auckland.Abbie Parr/Associated PressHaving wilted after winning the 2011 World Cup in a penalty kick shootout against the United States, Japan has bloomed anew with versatility to play the possession style of short passes known as tiki-taka or to launch searing counterattacks. After a blistering 4-0 loss to Japan during group play, Spain Coach Jorge Vilda said that his team’s defeat had been psychic as well as numerical. “Mentally, of course,” Vilda said, “this has done some damage.”After Japan defeated Norway by 3-1 in the round of 16, Caroline Graham Hansen, the Norwegian star who plays for the Champions League winner Barcelona, said that Japan showed why it might be the best team in the tournament.“They’re so disciplined and very structured in the way they play offense and defense,” Hansen said.Friday’s quarterfinal might play out as an engaging challenge of physicality versus technique. Sweden has scored four of its nine goals on corner kicks, a total that nearly grew last Sunday as it packed the six-yard box against the United States like a crowded elevator.But the Swedes could not manage a goal in 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime before subduing the Americans, finally and microscopically, on penalty kicks. Only the brilliant anticipation and reaction of goalkeeper Zecira Musovic kept the outcome from being reversed. A number of Sweden’s players appeared near exhaustion, particularly left back Jonna Andersson, who was beaten down the flank repeatedly by the speed of Trinity Rodman and Lynn Williams.Not until kickoff on Friday will it become evident whether Andersson and her teammates have had sufficient time to recover to face a relentless Japanese team that has been much more incisive in each of its matches than the United States was in any of its games.“They don’t play as directly as the U.S., so it’s going to be a different kind of game,” said Sweden’s coach, Peter Gerhardsson. “It’ll be more about possession.”Sweden may set its defense low, trying to absorb and dissipate Japan’s attack; its goal, Gerhardsson said, is normally to try to win the ball back after its opponent makes four or five passes.“With Japan, maybe it’s 10 to 15 passes, but we still want to win the ball,” he said. “And, then, transition is going to be important.”Japan entered this World Cup ranked 11th by FIFA, a sign of how far its fortunes had slid after winning the World Cup and returning to the final in 2015. Its inspiring 2011 victory came four months after an earthquake and tsunami had devastated the country’s northeast coast, killing more than 15,000 people and displacing thousands more.Japan’s players celebrate with the trophy after they won the World Cup in 2011.Patrik Stollarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEven in defeat that year, the American forward Megan Rapinoe said recently, she considered Japan’s victory “one of the greatest stories in all of sports.”But that success began to ebb. When the Japanese team traveled to the 2012 London Olympics, it had to fly coach, while its men’s team, mostly under-23 players, flew business class on the same jet. The women won a silver medal, while the men finished fourth.In the final of the 2015 World Cup, Japan was routed, 5-2, by the United States, largely on the predatory audacity of Carli Lloyd, who scored three goals in the first 16 minutes, including a shot launched from midfield. When Japan failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics the following summer, a makeover began, with the aim of overhauling the senior team but also of increasing the participation of female soccer coaches, referees and players, to create a larger talent pool from which to draw. The stated goal was to register 300,000 female players — up from 50,500 at the time — by 2030.Japan also hired the first female coach for its women’s national team: Asako Takakura, who had been a pioneering player. In an interview with The New York Times months before the 2019 World Cup, she predicted that Japan would win the tournament. She wanted her players to express their individualism, she said, instead of simply prizing the collectivity of the group, which had been a tradition on some previous teams.Instead of lifting the trophy, though, Japan scored only three goals in four matches and exited quickly and meekly. Two years later, Japan’s gold-medal dream at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics ended when it was eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals. Takakura was replaced by Futoshi Ikeda, who coached Japan to the 2018 under-20 Women’s World Cup title.As the current World Cup began, many remained skeptical about Japan’s chances, including Takakura, who told Agence France-Presse that Japan was “left behind by the sudden strides that the rest of the world were making” in terms of resources poured into women’s soccer. Not until 2021, for instance, did Japan’s women’s league become fully professional.Shinobu Ohno, who was a member of the 2011 championship team, told the French news agency that Japan’s national team had become sclerotic, unable to adapt to teams that were physically stronger and more tactically adept. But pretournament doubt has since been replaced by ascendant optimism.Japan supporters celebrating after their team’s win against Norway.Marty Melville/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIkeda has constructed a team built on agility, mobility, cohesion and a liberating joyfulness. Nine of Japan’s 23 players are attached to clubs in top women’s leagues in the United States, England, Italy and Sweden, and that has helped develop the confidence, fearlessness and tactical versatility evident in the World Cup.“We’re ready to fight against anyone,” said Saki Kumagai, Japan’s captain and the only player remaining on the roster from the 2011 World Cup. More

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      How Japan’s Win Over Spain Knocked Germany Out of the World Cup

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      AL RAYYAN, Qatar — The 11 Japanese players on the field were fighting back every Spanish threat and counting every tick of the clock. The substitutes stood on the sideline, arms locked, ready to rush the field. The fans beat a drum, and it felt like a quickening heartbeat.The whistle blew, and Japan had done it: It had upset another European soccer heavyweight, turned its four-team group inside out, and advanced to the round of 16.And Spain, knowing the tiebreaker scenarios and tracking what was happening 30 miles away in a game between Germany and Costa Rica, breathed a collective sigh of relief. It, too, had advanced from Group E, even after a 2-1 defeat at Khalifa International Stadium.Germany won its match but lost its hope. The Germans, the 2014 World Cup champions, were stunningly eliminated from the tournament before the round of 16 for the second time in a row. This time, Germany was undone by its own middling play over three games and the ruthless cruelty of group-stage math.At halftime of Thursday’s Group E games, which were played simultaneously, it looked as if Germany and Spain were going to move on. Minutes later, it looked as if it would be Japan and Costa Rica, after each scored two quick goals to take second-half leads.None of it was certain, though, until the games ended about 40 minutes later, and almost at the same time.The dizzying in-game what-ifs reinforced a quadrennial truism: The simultaneous group-stage finales provide what might be the greatest drama of the tournament.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

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      Real Madrid a Great Test for Celtic’s Champions League Model

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      Under its well-traveled Australian coach, the Scottish champion has become a gateway to Europe for Japanese players, and a model for clubs trying to punch above their financial weight.Ange Postecoglou did not have much time. The Australian coach was not Celtic’s first choice as manager: The Glasgow club had, instead, spent weeks last summer trying to persuade the Englishman Eddie Howe to take the post. By the time Postecoglou was hired in June 2021 — and served out his mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Scotland — he had little more than a month before his first competitive game.Time was not the only thing he was lacking. The situation at Celtic Park, as the 57-year-old Postecoglou would later admit, was faintly “chaotic.” Celtic’s team, recently beaten to the Scottish title by Rangers for the first time in a decade, was in dire need of an overhaul, a squad so lacking in both quality and quantity that Postecoglou was reduced to drafting in youth players to pad out his early training sessions.There was also nobody to tell him when reinforcements might be coming. Celtic had appointed a new chief executive only a couple of months earlier, but it was still searching for someone to serve as technical director. Postecoglou, who had never worked in Europe before, was on his own.His response to that challenge did more than simply restore Celtic to the pinnacle of Scottish soccer, wrenching the title back from the other side of Glasgow at the first opportunity and immediately transforming Postecoglou — whose arrival had been greeted with a skepticism that bordered on suspicion — into a wildly popular figure.It also did more than merely return the team, for the first time since the fall of 2017, to the group stages of the Champions League. The club begins its campaign on Tuesday evening by welcoming Real Madrid, the reigning European champion, to the place its fans call Paradise.Instead, Postecoglou’s approach laid down what amounts to a blueprint, showing how Celtic can ensure it does not have to endure such a prolonged absence from the continent’s elite again. And it might help the dozens of clubs caught in the same quandary — the brightest lights in the lesser leagues, the big fish in the small ponds — thrive in European soccer’s hopelessly skewed financial ecosystem.Celtic Manager Ange Postecoglou. He has turned his knowledge of Asian players into an advantage in Scotland. Russell Cheyne/ReutersPostecoglou, as he sought to revive Celtic, identified two key “points of difference.” The first was his style of play, a percussive, expansive approach best encapsulated by the slogan that became something of a mantra for the club last season: “We never stop.” It is easy, Postecoglou said this month, for a manager to claim they intend to play attacking soccer. He prides himself on delivering it.The second point, though, was arguably more immediately significant. One brief sojourn in Greece apart, Postecoglou had spent his entire career in Australia and Asia; Celtic hired him on the back of three successful years at Yokohama F. Marinos, Manchester City’s cousin club in Japan. There, Postecoglou thought, was an edge. “I could tap into some transfer markets that were a little bit unknown,” he said.Celtic already had a longstanding connection with Japan — the playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura spent four years at the club in the first decade of the century. But, in the absence of a settled structure at the club, Postecoglou leaned in to it, making Kyogo Furuhashi, a bright, prolific forward who had risen to prominence with Vissel Kobe, the first high-profile signing of his reign.Postecoglou was aware he was taking a risk. There was, as he said, plenty of doubt as to whether Furuhashi would be able to shine in Scotland.: Few fans would have known that, in the words of a scout at another Scottish club, the “standard of the J League is higher than the standard in Scotland.” Even fewer would have had a chance to see Furuhashi play.“Maybe if I hadn’t managed on that side of the world, I might have had the same skepticism,” Postecoglou said. The lack of time, though, meant he did not have much choice. He gave Furuhashi his debut before he had even trained with his new teammates. “He’d only had lunch with them once,” Postecoglou said.The risk, though, paid off so well — Furuhashi would end his first season in Scotland with 12 goals in 20 league games — that by December, Postecoglou was happy to go back. This time, he returned with three players: Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi and Daizen Maeda, a former charge from his time at Yokohama. All but Ideguchi are likely to start against Real Madrid on Tuesday.Postecoglou has been keen to stress that, though all four players are Japanese, they should not be grouped together. “They are different people; they are different players,” he said earlier this year. “They are all totally different. They all have different personalities. They have had different careers so far, and they offer something different to the club.”They are all, though, proof that Postecoglou was correct to identify his knowledge of the Japanese market as a potential advantage.Furuhashi has six goals in six games for Celtic this season. Russell Cheyne/ReutersThough there are sufficient Japanese players in Europe — primarily clustered in Germany, Belgium and Portugal — that earlier this year Hajime Moriyasu, the national team coach, could name an entire squad without a single J League player, few European teams employ permanent scouts in Japan.Indeed, until relatively recently, even those who sent representatives to scour the J League for players found it was not particularly easy. This was not just because of the cost and distance of travel, but because all of the league’s games tended to kick off at the same time, meaning a week’s trip might yield the chance to take in only one or two matches.Likewise, few European agencies have a footprint in Japan, disconnecting the country from the networks that can play a vital role in player recruitment. Those difficulties disincentivized European teams from looking too closely at the Japanese market. Celtic engaged only because of Postecoglou’s firsthand knowledge: “I’ve got that added advantage of knowing the market,” he said. “When I took over I was definitely going to use that expertise.”In doing so, he has helped to make Celtic a paradigm. Thanks to Postecoglou’s connections, Celtic has been able to retool its squad for a fraction of the cost it would have taken to acquire equivalent players from Europe, enabling the club to overcome at least a little of the financial disadvantage it experiences simply by virtue of calling a relatively small country — and by extension television market — home.It is an approach the club has started to build on. It has appointed Mark Lawwell, another alumnus of Yokohama — and the City Football Group network that runs the club — to oversee its recruitment division. Even before his official appointment, Postecoglou was bringing in players not just from England’s lower leagues, the traditional hunting ground for Scottish clubs, but from Russia and Argentina, Poland and Israel.The approach also makes the Celtic Postecoglou has built an example other clubs in its station — the champions cut adrift by the gathering of power and wealth by Europe’s major leagues — can follow. Those teams do not always have the time, or resources, that the continent’s true giants can match. By using a little knowledge, though, by finding something where scarcely anybody else has looked, they can level the playing field, just a little. More

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      Naomi Osaka Returns to the Court at Australian Open

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      On Dec. 31, as the final hours of 2021 ticked away, Naomi Osaka wrote on Twitter: “I’ve never been more excited for a year to be over.”Osaka, who had not played a competitive tennis match since losing in the third round of the U.S. Open to the world’s 73rd-ranked player, was getting a jump on the start of 2022 in Melbourne, Australia, after her second lengthy break from the game in seven months. And who could blame her.In the 10 months since she won her fourth Grand Slam title, in Australia, her destiny had gone from can’t-miss superstardom to something far more concerning.As last winter closed, Osaka was the dominant figure in her sport and the world’s highest paid female athlete at just 23 years old, as well as a respected voice on social justice issues. And then she became something else entirely.“There was a time after the French Open where I felt like everyone was judging me,” she said after her first-round win at the Australian Open Monday. “It feels a bit weird when you go into a stadium to play and you’re kind of concerned what everyone’s gaze means.”Her game began to unravel in the early spring, especially as the competition moved to clay, where she has never been comfortable. A confrontation with French Open officials over her refusal to appear at mandatory postmatch news conferences led to her withdrawal from the tournament. She went public with her yearslong battle with depression, took two months off, then returned at the Tokyo Olympics, where she lit the torch but lost in the third round amid relentless pressure to excel.Osaka lighting the Olympic torch in Tokyo in July.James Hill for The New York TimesThen came the upset in the U.S. Open, where she was a favorite to successfully defend her title, but exited with a tearful admission that playing tennis no longer made her happy, if it ever did. Suddenly, that moment of triumph at the 2020 U.S. Open felt ominous: After prevailing in three sets, she barely smiled and instead lay in the center of the court, staring at the dark sky.“It was just like an extreme buildup, and you just happened to see it all release last year,” a rusty Osaka said this month, after her first tuneup match in Melbourne, a messy three-set win over Alizé Cornet.Osaka grew sharper, and calmer, in her next two matches, both straight-set wins, then pulled out of the warm-up tournament ahead of her semifinal, saying her body was in shock after playing three matches in five days after a layoff that she had expected to last much longer.“I actually really thought I wasn’t going to play for most of this year,” she said. “I was feeling kind of like I didn’t know what my future was going to be. I’m pretty sure a lot of people can relate to that.”In some ways, relating to Osaka, who plays Madison Brengle in the second round at the Australian Open on Wednesday, has never been easier. Her story — though no one knows how it will end — is a cautionary tale for anyone pursuing a dream that may not be her own or for anyone who needs to press the pause button, regardless of the consequences.Despite her vast wealth and early success, or perhaps because of them, she has never seemed more vulnerable. And yet there will always be a remove with Osaka, who can be painfully shy, a kind of wall that even people who have been close to her have struggled to break through. That has only gotten more difficult as her persona has grown, because so have the barriers and the team of gatekeepers surrounding her as the pressures of success and fame mount.Osaka tossed her racket in frustration during her loss at the 2021 U.S. Open.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“In some ways, this all can be easier with a more outgoing person,” said Harold Solomon, the former pro who coached Osaka when she was a teenager. “Naomi is quiet and introspective. I’m not sure if she was really clear of what all of this would mean.”Now, back in Australia, the place where things last appeared right in her world, is she ready for the crucible? Even if she prevails, in matches, in the biggest tournaments, is that an appropriate way to measure the success and well-being of someone who just four months ago could not find joy on a tennis court? Is this really the life Osaka wants?Osaka, a self-described introvert, rarely grants interviews. She speaks in tightly controlled settings or postmatch news conferences during tournaments, where she has said she would prefer not to appear. (It’s also possible that her complaints about news conferences were merely a vessel for her larger complaints about the life of a pro tennis player.)Her parents, including her father, Leonard Francois, who pushed his daughters to pursue tennis, following the blueprint of Richard Williams, no longer speak publicly. Osaka declined through her representatives to be interviewed for this article. Behind microphones, she communicates deliberately, in clipped phrases that are turned over and over. When she has emoted, it has usually been on Instagram or Twitter.Osaka at the French Open before she withdrew form the tournament over concerns about her mental health.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesSascha Bajin, who coached Osaka to her first two Grand Slam titles, at the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Australian Open, said he initially had to figure out how to get her to trust him enough to participate in the most basic communication.“Naomi was so shy in the beginning, she didn’t even talk,” he said in a recent interview. Bajin noticed that she liked anime. So he began watching it, and learning about it, then made casual references to it before or after practice, which began to draw her out. “She saw that I showed interest in something that interested her. With Naomi it takes trust and belief.”Never celebrated winning points or games.There is a very basic and fair question to ask when considering Osaka’s career: Does she actually like tennis? Did she ever?“Yeaahhh?” Solomon said in a singsong, the way people intonate when they are not quite convinced of what they are saying.Solomon was one of several South Florida coaches who shared his services at little or no cost to help Francois fulfill his dream of producing the next iteration of Venus and Serena Williams.Mari, who is 18 months older than Naomi and as free with her emotions as Naomi is bottled up, initially had more drive to achieve stardom, Solomon and the other coaches said. She ultimately lacked the size, speed and power of her younger sister, who at 5 feet 11 inches is about a half-foot taller. Mari Osaka’s singles ranking peaked at 280 in 2018. She retired last year.Mari, left, and Naomi Osaka played doubles in 2017.Koji Watanabe/Getty ImagesHer younger sister’s motivations were more of a mystery.Bill Adams, who coached the girls when the family first moved to Florida from New York in 2006, said Naomi Osaka was tough to read even as a 10-year-old. She never refused to do a drill or “made a face,” Adams said, but she never celebrated good shots or winning points or games. A dozen years later, Adams ran into Osaka at the Evert Tennis Academy after she won the Indian Wells Masters, the first significant title of her career.“I told her I was pleased because I didn’t think you really liked it in the beginning,” Adams said.For years, the coaches said, beating her older sister was Osaka’s primary motivation. Once that became possible, her dreams expanded. Patrick Tauma, who coached the Osaka girls when Naomi was in her midteens, said he once asked her what she dreamed of accomplishing on the tennis court. She told him it was to beat Serena Williams in the final of the U.S. Open.She accomplished that in 2018, but the win was somewhat tarnished by Williams’s meltdown amid confrontations with the chair umpire, who penalized her for receiving coaching during the match. At the trophy ceremony, Osaka was in tears.“I feel like she lost her purpose,” Tauma said. “She is so young. It all went so fast for her.”Osaka after her first Grand Slam event title, beating her idol and rival, Serena Williams, in 2018.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesOsaka’s relationship with Solomon, who coached her when she was 16, was less harmonious. It ended not long after he questioned her definition of working hard, every day. He said the dynamic of their relationship was backward, with the coach pulling the student instead of the other way around.“I’m not saying it wasn’t there at times, but to bring out the full potential, you need to do that on a consistent basis,” Solomon said. “She was young, I was maybe too impatient, but I’m not going to spend time on the court with you if you are not willing to do that.”Work, wins, and then a crash.Clearly, Osaka figured out how to work hard consistently enough to win four Grand Slam titles, but eventually winning offered relief rather than happiness or fulfillment, despite the money, fame and platform that it also gave her.Did she understand everything that would come with her success on the court, Tauma wondered — the heat of the spotlight, the obligations to sponsors, the weight of being a symbol of a new, more multicultural and open Japan?A supporter with a Japanese flag cheered Osaka during her opening match.Alana Holmberg for The New York Times“She just wants to be a tennis player,” Tauma said. “Now she is a money machine. All these people working around her like a company. She feels like I am not a player anymore.”In the fall, he reached out to Osaka’s team and offered to spend a little time on the court with her as a way of getting back to her roots and remembering the good things about the game and “the smell of when you were starving.” Tauma never heard back.At the time, Osaka was busy with things she did not get to do growing up, like driving from her home in Los Angeles to the Bay Area to have sleepovers.“I didn’t really have that many friends, so I didn’t really talk to anyone,” she said.Eventually her desire to be on the court once more returned. She texted her coach and trainer and asked if they would be willing to work with her again. “I was just sitting in my house wondering, what do I want to do in the future?” she said. During her first practices, she tried to be acutely aware of whether she wanted to be there, whether she could be fully committed in each moment, because if she did not, she knew she was wasting everyone’s time.“I’m not sure if this is going to work out well,” she said this month in Melbourne.Osaka was mostly solid in her first-round win over Camila Osorio of Spain. She said that she often feels happy starting the year in Australia. Whether she can stay that way is anyone’s guess.Osaka entered Rod Laver Arena on Day 1 of the 2022 Australian Open.Alana Holmberg for The New York Times More

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      Pyae Lyan Aung, Myanmar Soccer Player, Wins Asylum in Japan

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      Ko Pyae Lyan Aung had defied the military junta’s rule at home after its coup, and had gambled he could win the right to stay in Japan.TOKYO — A professional soccer player from Myanmar who publicly opposed the military junta that staged a coup in his country won asylum in Japan on Friday, a rare development in a country known for its notoriously unwelcoming immigration system.The athlete, Ko Pyae Lyan Aung, came to Japan with Myanmar’s national team for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Asia this year. While on the field before the first match, he flashed a three-fingered salute — a gesture made popular by the movie “The Hunger Games” and that has become a sign of resistance in his home country.His small protest triggered intense news coverage that put him in a national spotlight. The gesture also brought concern that his life could be in danger if he returned home. Shortly before boarding a flight back, he asked Japanese immigration agents at passport control for asylum, gambling that he was better off taking a chance on Japan’s system than the forgiveness of the junta, which has brutally crushed the opposition since its Feb. 1 coup.Japan accepts less than 1 percent of asylum seekers each year, and it approved only 47 asylum applications last year. The system came in for blistering criticism after the death of a Sri Lankan migrant in a detention cell. Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s case also put attention on the reluctance of the Japanese government to take a firm stance against the junta’s actions in Myanmar. While Japanese officials have denounced the military’s actions, they have declined to join the United States and other countries in applying sanctions. More than 1,000 people have died at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces, according to a tally kept by a monitoring group that tracks the killings. Thousands are in detention.Japan has, however, allowed people from Myanmar to apply for visas on a provisional basis. Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung received a certificate on Friday attesting to his asylum status from the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau.Speaking to reporters on Friday, he thanked Japan for approving his asylum application and said that he had found a position with a third-tier Japanese soccer club in the port city of Yokohama and would be looking for additional work to support himself.“Now that I’ve received residence status, I can live worry free here in Japan,” he said, adding that he had not given up on his dream of going professional full time.Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s lawyer, Yoshihiro Sorano, praised the Japanese government for its decision, but noted that there were still many more people from Myanmar in Japan who could face political persecution if they returned home.“It’s Japan’s duty to think of a way that Myanmar can build a society that doesn’t produce refugees,” he said. More

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      in Soccer

      Danger Awaited in Myanmar. So He Made a Daring Bid to Stay in Japan.

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      After defying Myanmar’s military rulers at a soccer match, Ko Pyae Lyan Aung decided to seek asylum. But he was being watched.OSAKA, Japan — The soccer player’s plane was at the gate. Ahead of him stood his last chance at safety.The athlete, Ko Pyae Lyan Aung, had come to Japan with Myanmar’s national team. On the field, before the first match, he had flashed a gesture of defiance — the three-finger salute made famous by “The Hunger Games” — against the military junta that had ousted his country’s elected government. He was now afraid of what might happen if he returned home.Several times, he had tried to break away from the team and claim asylum, and each time he had been caught. The immigration line at the Osaka airport offered one more opportunity. When an agent waved him forward and asked for his passport, he presented his phone instead. On it was a message in English and Japanese: “I don’t want to go back to Myanmar.”The gambit worked. He can stay, at least for now. But while Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s case has riveted Japan and put pressure on the government, his fate may ultimately hinge on two of the most politically sensitive issues in the country today: its hostile immigration system and its response to the Myanmar coup.Few countries are less hospitable to refugees than Japan, which settled just 47 asylum seekers last year, less than 1 percent of applicants. In recent months, the immigration system has become a political battlefield after the death of an emaciated Sri Lankan migrant in a detention cell.At the same time, the government has been under intense pressure at home and abroad to do more to dissuade Myanmar’s military as it has ruthlessly crushed protests against its Feb. 1 coup. But Japan, which has been a top investor in Myanmar and generally avoids rights issues overseas, has been reluctant to make any moves that might alienate the junta, parting ways with allies like the United States that have imposed sanctions.A clash between protesters and security forces in Yangon, Myanmar, in March.The New York TimesMr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s case is likely to raise more questions about Japan’s stance. A growing number of athletes from Myanmar have refused to represent the country at international sporting events, arguing that to do so would risk legitimizing the military leaders. Myanmar’s participation this month in the Tokyo Olympics could become another flash point.So far, Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung has kept mostly quiet about politics, and his journey through the immigration system — in contrast to the experience of so many refugees in Japan — has been smooth. In May, the country announced emergency measures allowing citizens of Myanmar who wish to stay in Japan to apply for provisional visas. On June 22, Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung did so.That day, reporters amassed outside the Osaka immigration bureau, a gray filing cabinet of a building in a weedy corner of the city’s port, where he had gone to submit his official asylum request.He had recently learned that soccer players he knew in Myanmar had been killed while protesting, his lawyer said, adding that the new information would make Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s plea more compelling.As reporters shouted questions, a tattoo of a giant eye peered out from the crook of Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s elbow, unblinkingly surveying the scene.After an interpreter began to relay his responses, another foreign man suddenly appeared in the doors of the immigration center, screaming “Save me!” in Japanese. He sprinted down the street, and officials, lanyards swinging from their necks, puffed out of the building in close pursuit.Myanmar’s national team training at a stadium in Chiba, Japan, in May, before a World Cup qualifier against Japan.Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDays before, just blocks from where Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung now stood, he had been the immigrant trying to flee.He would rather have made headlines for blocking kicks during his team’s World Cup qualifier against Japan, he said during an interview in the narrow Osaka rowhouse where he now lives. But Myanmar lost, 10-0, and his defiant gesture made news instead.In the lead-up to the Japan trip, soccer players from Myanmar had begun openly expressing resistance to the regime. One grabbed international attention during a match in Malaysia when he celebrated a goal with his own three-finger salute.Ten players later declared that they would not play for the national team. That followed a decision by a Myanmar swimmer based in Australia to boycott the Olympics and call on the organizers to bar the Myanmar Olympic Committee. (The organizers said they had to stay out of politics.)The soccer players’ walkout delayed the trip to Japan, and Myanmar’s embarrassed national soccer association pressured the rest of the athletes to travel.Before he left, Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung decided to make a statement. He was frustrated and heartsick about the situation at home, he said, and felt betrayed when the Myanmar soccer association did not distance itself from the junta.Protesting against Myanmar’s coup outside the Chiba stadium.Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesHis moment came when his team lined up for the national anthem before its game against Japan’s national team, known as Samurai Blue.As news coverage of his defiant gesture snowballed, supporters became concerned about his safety. They reached out to U Aung Myat Win, an activist and restaurateur who fled from Myanmar to Japan in the 1990s. After years of being detained in the Japanese immigration system, Mr. Aung Myat Win had become one of the few refugees to receive asylum in the country.Over the years, he had gone to extraordinary lengths to help other immigrants from Myanmar navigate life in Japan. He messaged Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung, arguing that going back home could be deadly, and asked him whether he wanted to stay in Japan.At first the athlete wasn’t sure. But before long he had decided to try.His team was under close watch. Its management was keeping tabs on the players, and Japan’s soccer federation had hired a private security firm to ensure that the men didn’t break quarantine.Mr. Aung Myat Win scouted possible routes for Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung to slip out of his Osaka hotel. He would have to sneak past his teammates and down a central bank of elevators or emergency stairs.It proved too difficult. After several failed attempts, Mr. Aung Myat Win contacted an immigration lawyer specializing in asylum cases, Yoshihiro Sorano, who filed a complaint with the police saying that Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung was being held captive.Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung studying Japanese at the rowhouse where he now lives.Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesOfficers contacted the Japan Football Association, which assured them that the athlete was free to move around. The officers never spoke to him or visited the hotel, Mr. Sorano said.Asked about the situation, the group said that because of the government’s Covid-19 restrictions, it had hired private security to monitor all foreign teams in Japan, as well as Japanese players who had come into contact with them. It said it had not been able to confirm whether there were additional restrictions on Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung’s movement.Mr. Aung Myat Win and Mr. Sorano kept trying to make escape plans, but journalists had begun gathering outside the hotel, and the attention soon made it impossible.Before long, Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung and the other players were on a bus to the airport. Mr. Aung Myat Win followed.“When you get to immigration, tell them, ‘I don’t want to go home,’” he told Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung, who speaks little English and no Japanese. A supporter texted him the message in both languages to show the agent.Now that his asylum application has been filed, Mr. Pyae Lyan Aung is unsure what’s next. He has no job, has no Japanese language skills and is unlikely to get support from the government. He hopes to keep playing soccer professionally, he said, but if that doesn’t work out, he will do what he must to stay in Japan.All he knows for sure is that — for now at least — he can’t go home. More

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      in Basket

      Why Yuta Watanabe's Viral Moment Brought Cheers From Japan

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      Going viral because you got dunked on? Yikes — unless you’re Yuta Watanabe, whose effort has endeared him to a growing wave of basketball fans in his home country, Japan.Toronto Raptors forward Yuta Watanabe ended up on the wrong end of a viral moment when Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards dunked on him during a game in February.Photos and videos of Watanabe hopelessly coming up short in his attempt to stop the dunk made their way across social media, including the Instagram feed of the actor and basketball fan Kevin Hart, who shared a photo of the dunk with his 100-million-plus followers, saying: “This defender has to be thrown out of the league immediately….there’s no coming back from this.”But Watanabe is still here, and in his third N.B.A. season he has captured the imagination of basketball fans in Japan, his home country, while earning a rotation spot with the Raptors.Takeshi Shibata is the manager of basketball business for Nippon Bunka Publishing and has been a writer and editor with the company in Tokyo since 2010. A Tokyo native, he grew up watching the Showtime Lakers on satellite television in the 1980s, learning English by listening to the famed play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn.This season, he is one of the dozens of Japanese reporters covering Watanabe, whom he has followed since Watanabe was in high school playing for Jinsei Gakuen in the Kagawa Prefecture in Japan.“What I saw was an unbelievably athletic player,” Shibata said. “He was a man of energy, a man of effort.”Watanabe, then with the Memphis Grizzlies, exchanged jerseys with Washington Wizards forward Rui Hachimura, left, in 2019.Brandon Dill/Associated PressWatanabe has the best-selling N.B.A. jersey in Japan this season, ahead of Golden State’s Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Rui Hachimura, the Washington Wizards forward who in 2019 became the first Japanese player ever drafted in the first round.Hachimura has more name recognition and better odds of becoming a star in the league, but Watanabe’s story — going undrafted in 2018 after four seasons at George Washington University, then signing a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies — has appealed to a large audience in Japan.“He took more of a humble path,” said Ed Odeven, who grew up in the Bronx and has covered basketball in Japan since moving there in 2006. “The Japanese culture places a value on sticking with it and working hard to reach your goals. They see that in Yuta, and it resonates with them.”The pandemic curtailed Shibata’s plans to travel to Toronto — where he honeymooned with his wife, Ayako, in 1994 — to cover Watanabe in person this season. Instead, he wakes up at 5 a.m. and covers the Raptors from his home in Chiba, Japan, publishing up to four basketball stories daily on the company’s website. (The Raptors aren’t in Toronto, either; because of Canada’s health restrictions, they have spent the season in Tampa, Fla.)Shibata appreciates the flexibility of working from home, and has developed a rapport with Toronto Coach Nick Nurse, who has answered questions from Japanese reporters at the end of his virtual news conferences.“I enjoy talking to him and getting responses from him,” Shibata said. “He knows my English is shaky, and I’m trying my best to communicate with him. He’s been really inclusive to someone like me.”Through Toronto’s first 66 games, Watanabe has appeared in 47 and is averaging 4.2 points in 14.2 minutes.“I’m pretty sure I could come up with a good story even if Yuta played five seconds on the court,” he said. “Because every second means a lot to the basketball fans in Japan.”Shibata was hired by Nippon Bunka Publishing in 1992 as an advertising associate at what he believed was the start of a golden era of basketball in Japan.He joined the company shortly after watching Michael Jordan and the Dream Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, which ignited interest in the game globally. That coincided with the publication of a popular Japanese basketball manga written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue and named “Slam Dunk.” It ran from 1990 to 1996, sold over 120 million copies in Japan and helped inspire millions of children — including Hachimura and Watanabe — to play the game.Two local leagues eventually emerged. The Basketball Japan League began in 2005, and the Japan Basketball League, which became the National Basketball League, followed in 2007. Having two domestic leagues running concurrently violated FIBA’s general statutes, and the Japan Basketball Association, which oversaw both, was suspended from international competition in 2014.The N.B.A. held a pregame between the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors at Saitama Super Arena near Tokyo before the 2019-20 season.Jae C. Hong/Associated Press“There’s been so many roadblocks along the way,” Shibata said.Things have started to change in the past several years. The FIBA ban was lifted in 2015. The B. League — a new local pro league featuring 47 teams across three divisions — launched in 2016 and has been a success through the first five years, attracting local fans and major sponsors.Hachimura and Watanabe have inspired a new generation not only to watch the game, but also to see themselves playing at the highest level. (Yuta Tabuse became the first Japanese-born player to play in the N.B.A. in 2004, but lasted only four games with the Phoenix Suns.)In Japan, basketball is watched much less than baseball, soccer, tennis and sumo wrestling. Local newspapers will publish the occasional basketball story, such as the news last month that the Raptors had converted Watanabe to a standard N.B.A. contract. But N.B.A. games are available only online, through a streaming partnership between the league and Rakuten.To find basketball coverage in Japan, you must actively seek it out.For the longest time, the news media reported only traditional game stories, which was an adjustment for the former Lakers center Robert Sacre, who played professionally in Japan for three seasons.“They’re way more respectful,” he said. “They just want to know what happened during the game. It was never about trying to find a story. They want to know why you guys won or why you guys lost. It was unique in that sense.”There’s now a growing number of social media accounts, YouTube channels and podcasts, and they’re helping to provide the kind of off-the-court, personality-driven stories that reflect how basketball is covered in North America.“It’s become different in the last decade,” said Detroit Pistons Coach Dwane Casey, who coached in Japan from 1989 to 1994 and visits regularly. “You can see the younger generation getting more excited about basketball, and they’re covering it now. They’re into all the same things that get the younger generation’s attention in North America.”N.B.A. teams are recognizing this new appetite for digital content. The Raptors featured Watanabe in an episode of “Open Gym,” their behind-the-scenes video series, in February. It is the season’s most-viewed episode. And in 2019, the Wizards hired Zac Ikuma, a bilingual sports reporter in Japan, as a digital correspondent. The team has a dedicated Japanese Twitter account, and Ikuma hosts a Japanese-language podcast for fans overseas.Shibata has also ventured into telling different kinds of stories online. One of his most popular features was about a group of female Raptors fans in Toronto who nicknamed themselves “the Watana-baes.” The story, an explainer on the term “bae,” was picked up by a Japanese television network.Photos and videos of this dunk, by Timberwolves forward Anthony Edwards over Watanabe in February, made their way across social media.David Berding/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe digital activities of younger basketball fans are also helping give the North American audience a better idea of how the game is perceived in Japan.A few weeks after video of the Edwards dunk against Watanabe went viral, a Japanese reporter asked Watanabe about the play. The interview was translated into English by the Twitter fan account @RaptorsInfoJPN.“In a situation like that, most people avoid it these days for fear of it going viral on the internet,” Watanabe said. “I think, if I do so, I shouldn’t be here anymore and I shouldn’t get any playing time.”For Shibata, the play exemplified Watanabe’s work ethic, which has opened the door for a new generation of basketball players in Japan to dream of one day following the same path to the N.B.A.“It was only two points,” Shibata said. “We were proud of him for sacrificing his body to try to stop the dunk. To be an N.B.A. player, you have to stop these guys in the air. To do that, you can’t hide.” More

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      in Golf

      Ready or Not, Hideki Matsuyama Is Now a National Hero in Japan

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      By winning the Masters, the publicity-shy golfer will face a news media spotlight that trails every move of Japanese athletes abroad.TOKYO — Hideki Matsuyama has never been a fan of the spotlight. Even as he rose to become Japan’s most successful male golfer, he did his best to avoid the attention lavished on the every move of other Japanese athletes who have shined on the global stage.But with his win on Sunday at the Masters in Augusta, Ga., the glare will now be inescapable. His victory, the first by a Japanese man in one of golf’s major championships, is the fulfillment of a long-held ambition for the country, and it guarantees that he will be feted as a national hero, with the adoration and scrutiny that follows.Japan is a nation of avid golfers, and the game’s status as the sport of choice for the Western business and political elite has given it a special resonance. Success in sports has long been a critical gauge of the country’s global standing, with the United States and Europe often the standard by which Japan measures itself.“We have always dreamed of winning the Masters,” said Andy Yamanaka, secretary-general of the Japan Golf Association. “It’s a very moving moment for all of us. I think a lot of people cried when he finished.”Those tears reflect, in part, an island nation that sees itself as smaller and less powerful than other major countries, even though it is the world’s third-largest economy. That means athletes who represent it globally are often burdened with expectations and pressures that transcend the field of play.The country’s news media has followed the exploits of its athletes abroad with an intensity that some have found unnerving. When the baseball star Ichiro Suzuki joined the Seattle Mariners, Japanese news organizations set up bureaus in the city devoted exclusively to covering him. Television stations here broadcast seemingly obscure major league games just in case a Japanese player appears. Even modest scoring performances by a Japanese N.B.A. player can trigger headlines.Golf is no exception. Even during low-stakes tournaments, a gaggle of Japanese reporters often trail Matsuyama, 29, a degree of attention that the media-shy golfer seems to have found overwhelming.At Augusta, the pressure — at least from the news media — was blessedly low. Covid-19 restrictions had kept attendance by journalists to a minimum, and Japan’s press turned out in small numbers. After finishing Saturday’s third round with a four-stroke lead, Matsuyama admitted to reporters that “with fewer media, it’s been a lot less stressful for me.” The pressure is on for Matsuyama to win a gold medal in golf for Japan at the Tokyo Olympics.Doug Mills/The New York TimesHis victory was a major breakthrough for a country that has the world’s second-largest number of golf players and courses. The game is a ubiquitous presence throughout the nation, with the tall green nets of driving ranges marking the skyline of virtually every suburb. In 2019, the P.G.A. added its first official tournament in Japan.In the century since the game was introduced to Japan by foreign merchants, the country has produced a number of top-flight players, like Masashi Ozaki and Isao Aoki. But until now, only two had won major tournaments, both women: Hisako Higuchi at the 1977 L.P.G.A. Championship and Hinako Shibuno at the 2019 Women’s British Open.Earlier this month, another Japanese woman, Tsubasa Kajitani, won the second ever amateur women’s competition at Augusta National.Matsuyama’s Masters victory was the crowning achievement of a journey that began at the age of 4 in his hometown, Matsuyama — no relation — on Japan’s southern island of Shikoku. His father, an amateur golfer who now runs a practice range, introduced him to the game.He excelled at the sport as a teenager, and by 2011, he was the highest-placed amateur at the Masters. By 2017, he had won six PGA events and was ranked No. 2 in the world, the highest ever for a Japanese male golfer.In recent years, however, he seemed to have hit a slump, haunted by an uneven short game and a tendency to buckle under pressure, squandering commanding leads on the back nine’s putting greens.Through it all, Matsuyama has led a private existence focused on golf, while other athletes have racked up media appearances and corporate endorsements. He has earned praise for a work ethic that has sometimes led him to cap off a major tournament appearance with hours of work on his swing.He seems to have no hobbies or any interest in acquiring them. In 2017, he surprised the news media when he announced that his wife had given birth to the couple’s first child. Few even knew that he was married. No one had ever asked, he explained. When Donald J. Trump — a devotee of the game who was fond of conducting presidential business on the links — visited Japan in 2017, the prime minister at the time, Shinzo Abe, recruited Matsuyama for some golf diplomacy. The threesome did not keep score, and Matsuyama — true to his nature — had little to say about the experience.With his victory at Augusta, the expectations on Matsuyama will increase dramatically. Media attention is likely to reach a fever pitch in the coming weeks, and endorsement offers will flood in.Although golf has dipped in popularity in Japan in recent years, sports analysts are already speculating that Matsuyama’s win could help fuel a resurgence in the game, which has had renewed interest as a pandemic-friendly sport that makes it easy to maintain a healthy social distance. The Tokyo Olympics this summer will also focus attention on the game.Matsuyama chatted with Dustin Johnson, left, the 2020 Masters champion, after receiving his green jacket for the victory.Doug Mills/The New York TimesMunehiko Harada, president of Osaka University of Sport and Health Sciences and an expert on sports marketing, said he hoped that Matsuyama would use his victory to engage in more golf diplomacy, and that it would ameliorate the anti-Asian rhetoric and violence that have flared during the pandemic.“It would be great if the victory of Mr. Matsuyama would ease negative feelings toward Asians in the United States and create a kind of a momentum to respect each other,” he said, adding that he hoped President Biden would invite the golfer to the White House before a scheduled meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, this week.In remarks to the news media, Suga praised Matsuyama’s performance, saying it “gave courage to and deeply moved people throughout Japan.”The pressure is already on for Matsuyama to notch another victory for the nation.“I don’t know his next goal, maybe win another major or achieve a grand slam, but for the Japan Golf Association, getting a gold medal at the Olympics would be wonderful news,” Yamanaka, the association’s secretary-general, said.News reports have speculated that Matsuyama will be drafted to light the Olympic caldron at the Games’ opening ceremony in July.Asked about the possibility at a news conference following his victory, Matsuyama demurred. Before he could commit to anything, he said, he would have to check his schedule.Hisako Ueno contributed reporting. More