Faced with a new controversy, she chose to give up.
Karolina Shiino, elected Miss Japan 2024, announced this Monday, February 5, to return her crown after the revelation on January 31 by a Japanese weekly of her affair with a married doctor and influencer.
Aged 26, the young woman was the target of violent criticism in Japan after her coronation on January 22, her detractors attacking in particular the fact that she was born in Ukraine, and was naturalized in 2022. She does not would not represent their country according to them.
“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,” criticized an Internet user.
She had denied any knowledge of his family life
But it was for a completely different reason that she preferred to hand over her title two weeks after her coronation.
Indeed, an article published in the tabloid Shukan Bunshun on January 31 revealed that the young woman was in a relationship with a married man, known to be a doctor and influencer.
He has not publicly commented on these accusations.
However, Karolina Shiino acknowledged the veracity of this affair to the Miss Japan organizing committee, the institution announced on Monday, and at the same time admitted that she knew that the man was married and had children. .
In a first press release published the day after the revelations, the committee indicated that Miss Japan knew nothing about the family life of the man concerned.
But in a message in Japanese published this Monday on Instagram, the young woman announced that she had submitted her resignation to the committee and that it had been accepted.
She also apologized to her fans and the general public: she said she acted out of fear and panic in response to the article's publication.
The 26-year-old was born in Ukraine to Ukrainian parents.
She emigrated to Japan at the age of 5, after her mother married a man of Japanese nationality.
She grew up in the country, where she speaks the language fluently.
Her naturalization in 2022 allowed her to meet the only two criteria required by the Miss Japan committee: being of Japanese nationality and being aged between 17 and 26.
Recurring controversies against naturalized or dual-national Japanese
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.
During her coronation, Karolina Shiino also referred to the criticism she was the target of: “Often, I was not accepted as a Japanese, but today, I feel immense gratitude for to be recognized as a full Japanese,” she said.
It is not uncommon to see people who are not native 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 following Japan's surprise defeat against Iraq in the Asian Cup.