Wimbledon 2026 | Osaka defeats Jacquemot after Japanese-inspired ‘Kill Bill’ kimono walk-on

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Naomi Osaka of Japan walks into the court to play against Elsa Jacquemot of France in their first round women’s singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, on June 29, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Naomi Osaka made her mark on Wimbledon day one on Monday (June 29, 2026) with a first-round victory over Elsa Jacquemot after she caught fans’ attention with an eye-catching ‌Japanese-inspired outfit.

The four-time Grand Slam champion walked onto Court 3 in an all-white kimono, the traditional ⁠national dress of Japan, paired with a traditional kanzashi hair ornament, before unveiling a white Nike dress.

The kimono, which was decorated with ‌embroidered cranes and cherry blossoms, was created by Tokyo-based designer Hana Yagi and covered in “British Vogue” ‌as the tournament opened.

Osaka told reporters after her win ‌that ⁠her culture, combined with Wimbledon’s strict dress code, ⁠which instructs players to wear almost entirely white attire from the moment they enter the courts, helped inspire the outfit.

“When I think about Wimbledon obviously it’s all white ‌and the oldest tournament. There’s the tradition of it all and in my head when I think about that and I think about my culture, my heritage, which ‌is Japanese and Asian, and then if I dive deeper into Japanese culture I think about the most iconic silhouette, which for me is ⁠the kimono,” she said.

“I was thinking about my favourite movies. I love ‘Kill Bill’ and then I remembered absolutely falling in ‌love with Lucy Liu’s character, and she has an all white kimono. I remember thinking that was really cool and amazing.

“It was my interpretation of that and also my respect and love for Japan.”

It was Osaka’s tennis that grabbed all the attention when the match began, however, as ‌she fired 34 winners and won four out of nine break points in the 79-minute mauling of Frenchwoman Jacquemot.

The former world number one, who retired midway through ⁠the Bad Homburg final against Karolina Muchova last week, showed no ⁠obvious signs of the foot injury that had hampered her.

She takes on Anastasia Gasanova or Emiliana Arango ‌next.

Osaka also turned heads with a jellyfish-inspired outfit at the Australian Open in January this year, and a yellow-brown and gold dress during the French Open.

Published – June 30, 2026 12:30 am IST

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Japan Village, Battling Demographic Crisis, Celebrates Birth Of Baby In Over 20 Years

admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 06:19:53 +0000

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned that country is on the brink.

The birth of a baby is a joyous occasion for a family. The new life is a precious gift to the world, filling hearts with boundless joy and hope. But in Japan, the moment is extra special since the country is struggling to reverse its perennial low birth rates. And it got a chance to celebrate the occasion when Kuranosuke Kato was born in a small village named Ichinono, north of Osaka. He is now a year old, but the villagers still write poems about the boy, according to a Financial Times report.

When Kuranosuke appears to his elderly local fans, he is the centre of attention in a village that has just 53 residents. He is the first child born in Ichinono in more than two decades. The residents here have installed life-size dolls in the playground to fill a psychological gap.

The boy’s parents – Toshiki and Rie – are now planning for a brother or sister to keep their son company. They left the city a few years ago and are living in the countryside.

“I like the countryside. We can find an identity in the countryside. In the city there are a lot of rules, but this is more loose,” Mr Kato, who works as a consultant to IT companies, told Financial Times.

Toshiki and Rie are among the very few who have tied the knot in the last decades. Citing government’s data, FT said that almost 32 per cent of Japanese men and 24 per cent of women have never been married. The report also said that that annual number of marriages is half what it was in the 1970s.

In 2022, less than 800,000 babies were born in Japan and the indigenous population shrank by over half a million. The overall drop was the steepest decline recorded since 1968, when the government survey began, the ministry said.

The country has the world’s second oldest population, after tiny Monaco. In January, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned Japan was “on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society”.

Kuranosuke’s parents are now worried whether the boy will be able to find friends his own age.

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Wimbledon 2026 | Osaka defeats Jacquemot after Japanese-inspired ‘Kill Bill’ kimono walk-on

Japan Village, Battling Demographic Crisis, Celebrates Birth Of Baby In Over 20 Years