The newly topped Miss Japan 2024, statuesque in an embroidered column costume, sauntered middle stage and stated via tears that she lastly felt accepted in a nation she’d referred to as house since she was 5.
Karolina Shiino, a Ukraine-born mannequin, gained the Miss Japan title in January, a couple of months after she had been naturalized as a Japanese citizen. That made her the primary foreign-born girl to put on a crown meant to suggest the “foremost great thing about all Japanese girls.”
The crowning of Ms. Shiino, 26, was the newest take a look at of what it means to be Japanese, at a time when the nation has report numbers of resident overseas nationals and faces a demographic disaster that can require companies throughout the nation to recruit extra overseas staff sooner or later.
However this week, barely two weeks after Ms. Shiino’s victory, her reign got here to an unceremonious finish — not for questions of id, however over an affair with a married man that had been splashed within the pages of a tabloid.
Right here’s what occurred.
A historic crown
Ms. Shiino, contestant No. 1 amongst a dozen finalists, was chosen after a contest at a lodge in Tokyo that concerned a strut in a sports activities bra and shorts, and a kimono spherical for which she wore a peach pink one with a chrysanthemum sample and zori sandals.
When she gained, she stated it felt like an affirmation she had lengthy sought.
“Though I reside as a Japanese particular person, because of racial limitations, I used to be not accepted on many events,” she stated after her choice, in fluent Japanese. “However this time I used to be acknowledged as Japanese, and I’m full with a lot gratitude.”
The competition was established in 1950 as a means of choosing a good-will ambassador to thank the US for postwar support, together with powdered milk. The organizers say they’ve tailored to evolving magnificence requirements partly by including new standards to evaluate a contestant’s cultural refinement and her “great thing about coronary heart and soul.”
However variety has entered the dialog solely not too long ago. Naturalized Japanese make up a tiny fraction of the inhabitants, with fewer than 1,000 individuals every year acquiring citizenship since 2017.
Divided response
Ms. Shiino’s crowning induced a stir that echoed the hubbub over one other magnificence queen nearly a decade earlier: Ariana Miyamoto, a half-Black, half-Japanese girl who was chosen to signify Japan within the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. Though Ms. Miyamoto was born and raised in Japan, some questioned whether or not the consultant ought to have been somebody with “an actual Japanese face.”
A few of the reactions to Ms. Shiino additionally referred to as into query whether or not she may signify Japanese magnificence in a homogeneous society the place pageants reinforce concepts of conventional femininity.
“I feel she may be very stunning. However I understood {that a} ‘Miss Japan’ is an individual who has a magnificence that represents Japanese individuals. She doesn’t match this definition,” Mayumi Kurata, a cartoonist, wrote in a publish on the social media web site X. “Her magnificence will not be in a Japanese means.”
Others commented that the kimono didn’t seem to hold accurately on her determine or accused her of “pushing Japanese contestants out.” Some stated that the naturalization didn’t truly make her Japanese.
“She holds a Japanese passport however it’s simply on a doc,” one commenter stated on X.
Sudden downfall
Any dialog about Ms. Shiino’s Japanese id was rapidly overshadowed the next week when the tabloid Shukan Bunshun revealed a report saying that she had an affair with a married man with a toddler.
After initially denying the reviews, Ms. Shiino this week posted a press release on her Instagram account apologizing to the person’s spouse and household — the identical account the place, in September, she had posted a beaming selfie holding her brand-new Japanese passport.
“I take this case critically and declined the title of Miss Japan grand prix,” she wrote. “I’m actually sorry for inflicting huge bother and betraying everybody who supported me.” She couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon Thursday.
Organizers stated that they’d accepted her resignation “because of private circumstances” and that the title would stay vacant for the 12 months.
