An election that is causing a lot of noise in the land of the rising sun.
Carolina Shiino, a 26-year-old model, just won the Miss Japan pageant on Monday, becoming the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the beauty pageant.
If the story is beautiful for this woman born in Ukraine and arrived on Japanese soil at the age of 5, her election is controversial in the country.
Indeed, if some see her election as a sign of changing mentalities, many people criticize the fact that she does not come from Japan and does not look like a Japanese woman, indicates the BBC.
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“This person who was chosen as Miss Japan is not even half Japanese but 100% Ukrainian.
Certainly she is beautiful, but here she is Miss Japan", criticizes an Internet user on like the most beautiful Japanese woman.
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Others even wonder if the choice of the Ukrainian model is not a political decision.
“If she had been born Russian, she would not have won.
No chance.
Obviously, the criteria are now political.
What a sad day for Japan,” laments one internet user.
Numerous cases of racism in Japan
Ai Wada, the organizer of the Miss Japan Grand Prix, told the British media that the judges chose Carolina Shiino with “full confidence”.
“She speaks and writes in beautiful and polite Japanese.
She is more Japanese than us,” she said.
Naturalized last year, Carolina Shiino assured on Instagram that if she did not “look Japanese”, her heart “is Japanese”.
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In her victory speech, which she delivered in tears, she said that winning this competition made her feel fully recognized as a Japanese.
Carolina Shiino, a naturalized Japanese citizen, born in Ukraine and living in Japan since the age of 5, was crowned Miss Japan yesterday.
Very moved, she said that having won this competition allows her to feel fully recognized as a Japanese.pic.twitter.com/7zuMbtbQLf
— ⛩ Ryo Saeba - Japan XYZ ⛩ (@Ryo_Saeba_3) January 23, 2024
This is not the first time that the election of a Miss Japan has caused controversy because of the origins of the winner.
In 2015, Ariana Miyamoto, born to an African-American father and a Japanese mother, was strongly criticized on social networks for her physique far from Japanese standards.
The following year, the same fate was reserved for Priyanka Yoshikawa, a Japanese woman whose father is Indian.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to see people who are not 100% Japanese victims of prejudice in Japan.
Tennis player Naomi Osaka has often been the victim of racism in her country, as has Japanese goalkeeper Zion Suzuki in recent days following Japan's surprise defeat against Iraq during the Asian Football Cup.