The newly topped Miss Japan 2024, statuesque in an embroidered column gown, sauntered middle stage and stated by means of tears that she lastly felt accepted in a nation she’d known as dwelling since she was 5.
Karolina Shiino, a Ukraine-born mannequin, received the Miss Japan title in January, just a few 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 beauty of all Japanese women.”
The crowning of Ms. Shiino, 26, was the newest check of what it means to be Japanese, at a time when the nation has report numbers of resident international nationals and faces a demographic disaster that may require companies throughout the nation to recruit extra international 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 identification, 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 competition at a hotel 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 received, she stated it felt like an affirmation she had lengthy sought.
“Regardless that I dwell as a Japanese individual, as a result of racial obstacles, 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 approach of choosing a good-will ambassador to thank the US for postwar assist, together with powdered milk. The organizers say they have adapted 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 range 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 prompted a stir that echoed the hubbub over one other magnificence queen virtually a decade earlier: Ariana Miyamoto, a half-Black, half-Japanese girl who was chosen to represent Japan within the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. Regardless that 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.”
Among the reactions to Ms. Shiino additionally known as into query whether or not she might symbolize Japanese magnificence in a homogeneous society the place pageants reinforce ideas of traditional femininity.
“I feel she may be very lovely. 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 post on the social media website X. “Her magnificence will not be in a Japanese approach.”
Others commented that the kimono didn’t seem to hold appropriately 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 said on X.
Sudden downfall
Any dialog about Ms. Shiino’s Japanese identification was rapidly overshadowed the next week when the tabloid Shukan Bunshun printed 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 an announcement 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 severely and declined the title of Miss Japan grand prix,” she wrote. “I’m really sorry for inflicting huge hassle and betraying everybody who supported me.” She couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon Thursday.
Organizers stated that they had accepted her resignation “as a result of private circumstances” and that the title would stay vacant for the yr.