There’s a new queen of the ice and her name is Mirai Nagasu. Both her parents are Japanese, but Nagasu herself was born in the US and holds American citizenship; she has always skated for the US. Her parents are dedicated to her success, and the hard work seems to be paying off.
This clip is from 2007, when Nagasu won the Junior Ladies title. Nagasu is now competing in the US Figure Skating Championships (graduating from Junior to Senior) and has pulled a massive upset over Kimmie Meissner .
She’s a gorgeous skater; I’m so excited to see how her career progresses!
Mirai Nagasu has already attended at the International team competition last year in Japan and had a Japanese TV exposure too. She is considered as the next generation bright shining star of ladies figure skating along with Caroline Zhang. I think both girls have chances to medal at Vancouver Olympic 2010.
For Japanese skaters you can check http://www.japanskates.com/index.htm
Hi, TofuUnion. Where have you been?
Does this mean that we’ll have to suffer through more horrible Japanese media coverage of someone who is not Japanese being claimed as Japanese because some ancestor came from Japan? Mention it once and that’ enough (it should only be trivia), but the obsession gets so old. (See ex-Pres and Peruvian despot Fujimori, until he fell from his perch, skaters Anton Ono and Christi Yamaguchi, etc. etc.)
Nagasu is pretty Japanese, though she skates and trains in the States. And given the fact that she just won, you’ll be hearing much, much more about her.
And Tofu Union, it is lovely to see you back. I’ve been wondering where your intelligent comments were hiding!
She’s a US citizen (even native born), raised in the US, living and training in the US and competes as an American. Makes her American, not Japanese, unless there’s something in her blood and genes that make her uniquely Japanese.
I don’t mind hearing about her, it’s the endless media and popular coverage of these types of cases in Japan that drives me nuts.
According to Wikipedia, Ms. Nagasu holds dual citizenship, which clearly makes her Japanese (as well as American). Something also tells me that there is in fact something in her “blood and genes” that makes her undeniably and uniquely Japanese (ethnically speaking).
It’s actually nice that a country (and its media) can be proud of those among its native sons and daughters (and descendants thereof) who find success abroad. (I wonder how prevalent this sort of phenomenon is seen in other parts of the world.)
Mind you, I can see the point of how endless media and popular coverage of just about any subject matter can drive one nuts. But this too will pass. Let the girl have her day in the sun, I say.
Yeah, I was just about to qualify that I see she has dual citizenship. Unless Japanese law changes, she’ll have to choose by age 22 and given that she’s grown up in the US, I’d bet that’s what she’ll choose.
But I don’t buy the blood and genes argument–that’s eugenics, no matter how anyone tries to cut it.
Not to belabor the point but Merriam-Webster defines eugenics as “a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed”.
Simple recognition of the fact that the Ms. Nagasu is ethnically Japanese (by blood) can, if overly emphasized, be regarded as obnoxious perhaps but I don’t see the connection to eugenics.
As for the citizenship issue, she will probably, in practice, be able to retain both. In theory, she will not be able to, but there are effectively no means of enforcing the law in this area for the most part. (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060627kj.html)
After Kimmie Meissner had become World Champion in 06, she has been very sluggish except winning at Four Continents and Skate America last year. This month she was the 6th at US Nationals (and the 6th with very bad scores within 6 contenders at Grand Prix final on December). Has she lost the strong motivation ? As Michel Kwan is already retired and Sasha Cohen is semi-retired, Mirai Nagasu and Caroline Zhang are now the hope of American ladies figure skating.
As for the ladies, Asian skaters are now coming to the top, such as Yu-Na Kim (Grand Prix final champion), Mao Asada(Worlds runner up), Miki Ando(reigning world champion) and Shizuka Arakawa (reigning Olympic gold medallist, turned to pro). Japanese media hope Mao Asada to beat Yu-Na Kim and win at the World Championship in Sweden on March.
Irina Slutskaya has been longest retired. I think neither Sarah Meier, Carolina Kostner, Julia Sebestyen nor Joannie Rochette can surpass Yu-Na Kim or Mao Asada. Then, all the top skaters will be Asian (or Asian American). This has never happened before. I actually did read the Nagasu case in this context.
Kimmie Meissner was the 7th at US Nationals (not 6th). Caroline Zhang was 4th. And Mirai Nagasu was actually 3rd in Free Program. (She has fallen with double axel jump.) Rachael Flatt was second.
Nagasu, Flatt and Zhang are too young to go to the world championships in March. Ashley Wagner is eligible for worlds who finished third.
[…] year old Mirai Nagasu has won the senior Ladies Free Skate at the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Paul. She […]
Interesting article on dual citizenship, I wonder if that could work for someone well known, as she already is. It’s around the passport renewal time that things can get dicey, especially if your surname isn’t Japanese.
Eugenics is, in a broader sense, based on genetic determinism. My point is that other than her ancestors came from Japan (but left it voluntarily) and her current citizenship (which is irrelevant to this phenomenon given Ono, etc) there is nothing intrinsically Japanese about her. Saying that it’s in her blood is saying that she has no choice about her identity and that it is built into her. It’s like saying a 4th generation ‘zainichi,’ who has wholly integrated and doesn’t consider him/herself Korean anymore, is still Korean on a basic level. Or insisting that someone who has become a Japanese citizen isn’t really Japanese (their blood/ethnicity isn’t). It’s all part of the same ball of wax.
To put it a different way, I have a racially different sister who was adopted. In Japan, people always ask if she’s my “real” sister. They refuse to believe it when I say yes because to them, real=blood. That we both consider each other to be “real” siblings isn’t relevant to them. Then they insist that she’s not American (I look Western European white, while my sister isn’t white). I get asked where she’s from or what she is. “American” (all she considers herself) doesn’t cut it. Until I break down and give an ethnic history (i.e., where her ancestors came from), people generally aren’t satisfied. It’s that sort of attitude that I’m talking about and that is the same as claiming people whose ancestors are from Japan as Japanese (although as I admitted once I found out about it, Mirai’s dual citizenship makes it a slightly different case).
She’s Japanese. Dual citizenship, has a long relationship with the country, is culturally competent, listens to MFlo(!), speaks the language, etc. I don’t get what is vague or confusing about her situation or why the media in Japan wouldn’t be interested in her.
Dual Citizenship?..now you have my attention.
http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-7118b.html
rem.
(my mistake) She’s under 22.
sorry.
rem.
“Mirai Nagasu may not be a familiar name on the American sport scene but it will be. She is the United States Figure Skating Champion. And she is fourteen years old. Her skating is elegant and she is delightful off the ice as well. Mirai does not speak in the usual sports clichés:
“…“The fall on the double axel was like a kick in the butt,” she said. “After that, I was like, ‘Attack!’””
Maybe that partly answers your question Marie..hardly the demure young female sports star lingo that the Japanese are used to is it?..
rem.
That ‘s some kind of record for me - as I don’t normally comment on anything that lays outside of my own narrow and selfish interests.
rem
Thanks remora.
Even the international marriage in Japan is nowadays not uncommon anymore, Japanese law doesn’t allow dual citizenship after the age of 22 years. We hear lots of foreigners or their children in Japan claim that it’s troublesome to be forced to choose Japanese nationality or own nationality. I assume it’s not convenient to live in Japan as a foreigner without Japanese nationality.
Mirai Nagasu is Japanese and speaks Japanese at home in America. But she will probably get rid of her Japanese nationality by the time she will be 22 years old.
I apologise for getting a little off-topic here but allow me to relate my own story regarding dual citizenship. A few years back, I was at an age when I was technically required to choose. I went to my local Japanese consular office with the intent of figuring out how to apply for a work visa. After pointing out that I was a Canadian by birth and a Japanese through registration at birth, they suggested that it would be easier for everyone concerned if I just applied for a Japanese passport instead. I explained my citizenship status once again and they in turn effectively told me not to sweat it.
With the hassle involved in applying for a Canadian passport these days, it’s nice to have an alternative.
However, since Ms. Nagasu became a dual national after January 1, 1985 (i.e., when the change in the Nationality Law was enacted), her case could be treated differently from mine. Somehow though, I suspect the same bureaucratic resistance to enforcing this law will apply to Ms. Nagasu when she turns 22 years old.
in the case of my children we only had a short space of time after each birth to register them with the Japanese Government (weeks in fact).