Japanese society is changing, but the bias against lefties has a long tradition around the world. Numerous players were natural lefties and "forced" to change, including grand slam champ Mo Connolly.
Still, the bias is strong in Japan. When I taught there in 1988, my students gasped the first time I wrote on the board. Rollo is a lefty, ya see. In the past left-handed students who hadn't been "switched" by their parents(often by slapping the offending hand or tying it so it can't be used) by grade school were "encouraged" to write right-handed by teachers. The intensive nature of the Japanese writing system demands imitation, and students often learn by having the teacher's hand placed directly over their own. This is all easier if both teacher and student are using the same hand.
This carries over into tennis. Form(and conformity) are everything.
I was lucky to have a tennis teacher at the club I joined who was left -handed. The ONLY time you could tell he was a lefty was on the court.
Things were changing then, and my guess is lefties have it easier now. At least in Kimiko's case we got a unique style of tennis, with two forehands!
