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On Monday, January 22, Carolina Shiino won the 2024 Miss Japan Grand Prix Beauty Pageant, which has sparked an international debate on the internet. Shiino, 26, was born to Ukrainian parents and moved to Japan as a child.
Having lived in Nagoya, Japan, for over 20 years, Shiino is now recognized as a naturalized citizen of the country.
Shiino’s win comes roughly a decade after the beauty pageant chose its first bi-racial Miss Japan – Ariana Miyamoto. Miyamoto, who was born in Japan as well, had an African American father and a Japanese mother. According to BBC, her victory in the 2015 pageant had raised questions about the eligibility of mix-race candidates to win the competition.
Ten years later, a candidate with no Japanese parentage has led to netizens being upset, not only about the absence of her Japanese roots but also about her “European looks.”
Netizens take to social media to critique the decision of Shiino’s victory
It appears as though the selection of a Ukrainian-born model as Miss Japan is not sitting well with viewers and netizens across the world, sparking debates about Carolina Shiino’s “Japaneseness” on the internet.
Some netizens have claimed that the competition was “rigged,” with the choice of having an ethnic Ukrainian candidate being “surely political,” while others stated how it was sad that they thought the most beautiful Japanese woman “looked European.”
Here are some of the reactions:
Carolina Shiino moved to Japan with her family at the age of 5
Carolina Shiino, 26, has been a resident of Nagoya in Japan for the last twenty years. Shiino was born in Ukraine in 1998 to a Ukrainian couple. However, within a few years of her birth, her mother re-married a Japanese man, which led to the family moving to Japan in 2003. Shiino was 5 at the time.
While Shiino’s victory might seem “inappropriate” to some, Ai Wada, the organizer of the Miss Japan Grand Prix Beauty Pageant, does not agree.
Wada reportedly told the BBC how Shiino was chosen the winner by the judges with “full confidence.”
“She speaks and writes in beautiful Japanese, she is more Japanese than we are.”
In her acceptance speech at the Miss Japan pageant, Carolina Shiino shared:
“I’ve had to face barriers that often prevent me from being accepted as Japanese, so I am filled with gratitude to be recognized at this competition as a Japanese person.”
According to Sky News, Shiino described herself as Japanese in both speech and mind and wanted to create a society where people are not judged by their appearance.
