Karolina Shiino, a 26-year-old model who was born in Ukraine and moved to Japan when she was 5, has been crowned as Miss Japan 2024.
This sparked a debate on what it means to be Japanese and who can represent the country’s beauty.
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Miss Japan 2024 is a Naturalized citizen who loves Japan
Shiino, who speaks fluent Japanese and holds a Japanese passport, said she entered the Miss Nippon contest, which claims to select the “Foremost Beauty of All Japanese Women”, to be recognized as a Japanese person. She said she has faced difficulties being accepted as a local because of her appearance, and hoped her win would change minds about who can be considered Japanese.
“After all, we live in an age of diversity – where diversity is needed,” she told CNN in Tokyo. Many people, like me, are concerned about the disconnect between their appearance and (who they are). She also said, “I feel really happy to be recognized in this way.“
Reaction from the public on Miss Japan 2024
Shino’s victory has received both praise and criticism from the public, especially on X (formerly Twitter). Some users compared him to foreign-born athletes who have represented Japan in international sports competitions and praised his love for the country.
Others questioned whether someone without Japanese ancestry could represent the country’s beauty ideals, and wanted the pageant to be based on Japanese standards of beauty.
“Racial discrimination is unacceptable,” historian Hiro Yamashita wrote in The (ethnically) Japanese Girl Has No Chance of Winning under modern values of Beauty.
Changing Society with Challenges
Japan is an ethnically homogeneous country with comparatively low levels of immigration, which has prompted authorities in recent years to bring in more foreign residents and workers to fill the gaps left by a growing population. The country has struggled to balance its conservative views on immigration with its need for new and young workers, although a 2018 Pew survey showed that 59% of Japanese people believe immigrants will make the country stronger.
Shino’s win comes nearly 10 years after Ariana Miyamoto became the first biracial contestant to be crowned Miss Universe Japan, among several other national-level pageant titles. Miyamoto represented Japan at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant.
Miss Nippon is not part of the international beauty pageant circuit and is unaffiliated with global pageants such as Miss World and Miss Universe.
The first Miss Nippon pageant, held in 1950, was sponsored by Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest newspapers. It was originally established to select a Goodwill Ambassador to the United States who would express Japan’s gratitude for American humanitarian aid after World War II.
The first inaugural competition was won by Fujiko Yamamoto, who went on to become a successful actor. According to the organizers’ website, her “dignified beauty” became the new standard of beauty for Japanese women in the years to come.
Source: CNN
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