The first naturalised Japanese citizen to win the Miss Japan contest, Ukrainian-born Carolina Shiino, has divided commentators in the country, and reignited a debate about identity and what it means to be Japanese.
Born in 1998, Shiino moved to Japan at the age of five after her Ukrainian mother married a Japanese man, according to the Daily Mail. She was raised in Nagoya.
The BBC reports that while some recognised her victory as a ‘sign of the times’, others have said she does not look like what a ‘Miss Japan’ should.
Shiino was quoted as having said – in impeccable Japanese – that ‘there have been racial barriers, and it has been challenging to be accepted as Japanese’.
Her win comes nearly 10 years after Ariana Miyamoto became the first bi-racial woman to be crowned Miss Japan, in 2015.
Back then, with a Japanese mother and African American father, Miyamoto’s victory raised questions about whether a person of mixed race should be eligible to win the competition.
Now, the fact Shiino has no Japanese parentage has upset some on social media.
The BBC cites a post on X that said: ‘This person who was chosen as Miss Japan is not even a mix with Japanese but 100% pure Ukrainian. Understand she is beautiful, but this is “Miss Japan”. Where is the Japaneseness?’
Another post read: ‘If she was half [Japanese], sure no problem. But she’s ethnically 0% Japanese and wasn’t even born in Japan.’
However, Ai Wada, the organiser of the Miss Japan Grand Prix pageant, said the judges had chosen Shiino as the winner with ‘full confidence’.
‘She speaks and writes in beautiful and polite Japanese,’ Wada said. ‘She is more Japanese than we are.’
[Image: https://i2.pickpik.com/photos/491/333/70/asian-girl-asia-woman-hair-42208f8e9e7db5037dc220e07d90e702.jpg]