Tokyo Olympics: Mixed-race NBA star Hachimura to be Japan's joint flagbearer

Tokyo - Hachimura was raised in Japan as the child of a Japanese mother and Beninese father and plays for the NBA's Washington Wizards

Japan has selected basketball player Rui Hachimura and wrestler Yui Susaki as joint flagbearers for the Tokyo Olympics, organisers said on Monday, placing representatives of a younger, more diverse generation of Japanese at the head of its national team.

Hachimura, 23, was raised in Japan as the child of a Japanese mother and Beninese father and plays for the NBA’s Washington Wizards.

He joins female wrestling medal hope Susaki, 22, as flagbearers leading the host nation’s team at the opening ceremony on July 23, the Japanese Olympic Committee announced.

The joint flagbearer role for Japan and other teams is a break with tradition after the International Olympic Committee changed the rules to send a message of gender parity.

Hachimura, one of a growing number of mixed race Japanese as international marriages increase, has commented publicly about his experience of racist abuse.

In May his younger brother Allen, who plays basketball at university, posted a screenshot of a racist message he had received.

“People say Japan is not a racist country,” Allen said in the Twitter post. “I want everyone to care about the problem of racism,” he added.

“I get messages like this almost every day,” Rui Hachimura wrote in a reply to his brother’s post.