24-year-old athlete Naomi Osaka has started her own media company named Hana Kuma with the help of American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers Lebron James.
The company will be run in partnership with SpringHill, a fast-growing entertainment, marketing and products company co-founded by James. Osaka said in a brief Zoom interview that her ambitions for Hana Kuma, which stands for “flower bear” in Japanese, include scripted and unscripted television series, documentaries, anime and branded content, which is entertainment programming that has embedded or integrated advertising.
“I honestly can’t say if I’ll personally be in anything right now,” Osaka said. “What excites me is being able to inspire people and tell new stories, particularly ones that I would have wanted to see when I was a kid. I always wanted to kind of see someone like me.” Osaka is of Japanese and Haitian ancestry.
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Osaka was an early supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Last year, she started a global discussion about mental health in sports when she withdrew from the French Open, citing a need to make her own well-being a priority. She also disclosed past struggles with depression and anxiety.
James said by telephone that Osaka’s “grace and power” on and off the court made her a good match for SpringHill, “which exists to empower athlete creators.”
“We don’t take for granted the position we are in to lend a helping hand, in this case to Naomi, to help empower her to do even more great things,” James said.
Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion who ranks as the world’s highest-paid female athlete, having earned $57 million in 2021, mostly from sponsorships. Walmart recently began to stock products from her skincare company, Kinlò, in nearly 3,000 locations. Last month, she started a sports representation agency.
Osaka has 12 sponsors, including Nike, Mastercard, Louis Vuitton and Panasonic.
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