It is the first time in the history of the Miss Japan pageant that an immigrant has won the title.
In conservative Japan, the pageant institution has come under fire after crowning a Ukrainian-born immigrant as the winner of the pageant.
A 26-year-old winner Carolina Shiino was born in Ukraine.
She moved to Japan at the age of 5 when Shiino’s mother married a Japanese man. Shiino is a Japanese citizen, and the first foreign-born Miss Japan Grand Prix winner.
– I have had to face obstacles that often prevent me from accepting my Japaneseness, so I feel deep gratitude that I was recognized as Japanese in this competition, Shiino said on stage of The Independent by.
“Where is Japaneseness?”
Shiino has said that he identifies as Japanese. However, the victory of a European-looking woman has caused outrage on social media.
Commentators on social media have questioned the jury’s decision to crown a person who is not of Japanese descent as Miss.
– The woman chosen as Miss Japan is not even a mixture of Japanese and European. He is 100 percent of Ukrainian descent. Understand that she is beautiful, but the pageant is called Miss Japan. Where is the Japaneseness?
– What kind of message does it send to the Japanese that a European-looking person gets the title of the most beautiful Japanese, social media commentators pondered.
– As a non-Japanese living in Japan, I also think that it is ridiculous to crown a person who has no ethnic connection to Japan as the winner, another commenter states in his message.
The judges justified Shiino’s selection as Miss Japan with the woman’s self-confidence.
Competition organizer Oh Wada emphasized in his reasoning The Telegraph according to which Japanese beauty has nothing to do with appearance or ethnic background.
– It lives in our hearts and encourages viewers to think about the essence of Japanese beauty.
According to Ai Wada, Shiino speaks and writes in beautiful and polite Japanese.
– He is more Japanese than us, Ai Wada reasoned.
Source: Reuters