The triumph of the Ukrainian-born model at Miss Japan reopens the debate about identity in the Asian country

“It was a challenge to be accepted as Japanese.”

That’s what he said Karolina Shiino cried in flawless Japanese after being crowned Miss Japan this week.

“I had to face racial barriers,” he added.

The 26-year-old model, born in Ukraine, moved to Japan at the age of 5 and grew up in the city of Nagoya.

She is the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the competition and His victory reignited the debate about what it means to be Japanese.

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While some recognized her win as a “sign of the times”, others said she was not at all what Miss Japan should be.

Her triumph comes nearly 10 years after Ariana Miyamoto became the first mixed-race woman to be crowned Miss Japan in 2015.

At the time, the win for Miyamoto, the daughter of a Japanese mother and an African-American father, raised questions about whether a person of mixed race should be eligible to win the pageant.

Side effects

Now, the fact that Shiino does not have Japanese ancestry has sparked outrage on social media.

“This person who was chosen as Miss Japan It’s not even a mix with Japanese, but purely Ukrainian. I understand that she is beautiful, but this is Miss Japan. “Where is the Japaneseness?” wrote a user on Xu, formerly Twitter.

“If he was half (Japanese), of course there would be no problem. But she is ethnically 0% Japanese and wasn’t even born in Japan,” another user posted.

Others stated that his victory sends “wrong message” other people in the country.

“I think Japanese people will naturally get the wrong message when a European-looking person is called the most beautiful Japanese person.”

Others have suggested that the choice of the Ukrainian-born model may have been a political decision.

“If I was born in Russia, I wouldn’t have won. No way. Obviously, The criterion is now political. What a sad day for Japan,” said one person.

Ai Wadaorganizer of the Miss Japan Grand Prix, told the BBC that the judges had “full confidence” in choosing Shiina as the winner.

“She speaks and writes beautiful, kind Japanese,” Wada said. “She is a bigger Japanese than us.”

At the beginning of last year, Shiino announced on Instagram that he had received Japanese citizenship.

“I may not look Japanese, but my mind has become Japanese growing up in Japan,” she emphasized.

Accepting the trophy as Miss Japan 2024, she said winning the title was a “dream”.

“Being recognized as a Japanese in this competition fills me with gratitude.”