Panasonic Corporation has signed a brand ambassador agreement with professional women’s tennis player Naomi Osaka. Born to a Japanese mother and a Haitian-American father, who moved her to New York in the United States when she was three years old, the tennis champion recently made headlines for withdrawing from the French Open.
The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill reports, Osaka, the second-ranked woman in international tennis and the highest-paid female athlete in the world, withdrew from the French Open after a power struggle with tournament officials over whether she would attend obligatory press conferences. Hill notes Osaka has had trouble in that tournament in the past, having never advanced out of the third round. In May, Osaka announced on social media that she was skipping all news conferences during the event to protect her mental health.
Panasonic said they sought the agreement with Ms. Osaka after observing that her values and perspectives on society deeply resonate with its own management philosophy. They credit Osaka with taking social issues seriously, looking beyond tennis to share her views on what a better society would look like in her own words. These reflect Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita’s notion that a stable state of happiness comes only when both mental stability and material prosperity are secured. Based on this idea, the company endeavors to create an ideal society where all of us can enjoy lives that are both mentally fulfilling and affluent in the material sense.
Panasonic Corporation is a global leader developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B sectors. The company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, operates 522 subsidiaries and 69 associated companies worldwide. Committed to pursuing new value through collaborative innovation, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for its customers.
