The short reign of Japan's first foreign-born beauty queen

The newly crowned Miss Japan 2024, statuesque in an embroidered column gown, strolled center stage and said through tears that she finally felt accepted in a country she had called home since she was five.

Karolina Shiino, a Ukrainian-born model, won the title of Miss Japan in January, a few months after becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen. That made her the first foreign-born woman to wear a crown intended to represent the 'most important beauty of all Japanese women.”

The coronation of Ms. Shiino, 26, was the latest test of what it means to be Japanese, at a time when the country has record numbers of foreign residents and faces a demographic crisis that will require companies across the country to hire more foreign workers to recruit. employees in the future.

But this week, just two weeks after Ms. Shiino's victory, her reign came to an unceremonious end — not over identity issues, but over an affair with a married man who had graced the pages of a tabloid.

This is what happened.

A historic crown

Ms. Shiino, Contestant No. 1 out of a dozen finalists, was selected next a match in a hotel in Tokyo this involved a strut in a sports bra and shorts, and a round kimono for which she wore a peach pink one with a chrysanthemum pattern and zori sandals.

When she won, she said it felt like confirmation she had been looking for for a long time.

“Although I live as a Japanese, I was often not accepted due to racial barriers,” she said in fluent Japanese after her selection. “But this time I was recognized as Japanese, and I am full of so much gratitude.”

The contest was established in 1950 as a way to select a goodwill ambassador who would thank the United States for postwar assistance, including powdered milk. The organizers say they have adapted in part to evolving beauty standards by adding new criteria to judge a contestant's cultural sophistication and her “beauty of heart and soul.”

But diversity has only recently been discussed. Naturalized Japanese make up a small portion of the population; since 2017, fewer than 1,000 people obtain citizenship each year.

Divided response

Ms. Shiino's coronation caused an uproar that echoed the uproar over another beauty queen nearly a decade earlier: Ariana Miyamoto, a half-black, half-Japanese woman who was chosen to represent Japan at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. Although Ms. Miyamoto in Having been born and raised in Japan, some wondered whether the representative should have been someone with “a real Japanese face.”

Some responses to Ms. Shiino also raised questions about whether she could represent Japanese beauty in a homogenous society where pageants reinforce ideas of traditional femininity.

“I think she is very beautiful. But I understood that a 'Miss Japan' is someone with a beauty that represents the Japanese people. She does not fit this definition,” Mayumi Kurata, a cartoonist, wrote in a message on the social media site X. “Her beauty is not Japanese style.”

Others noted that the kimono didn't seem to fit her figure properly or accused her of “pushing out Japanese contestants.” Some said that naturalization did not make her truly Japanese.

“She has a Japanese passport, but it's only on a document,” says one commenter said on X.

Sudden demise

Any talk of Ms. Shiino's Japanese identity was quickly overshadowed the following week when the tabloid Shukan Bunshun published a report saying she was having an affair with a married man with a child.

After initially denying the reports, Ms Shiino this week posted a statement on her Instagram account apologizing to the man's wife and family – the same account she posted on in September a radiant selfie with her brand new Japanese passport in her hand.

“I take this matter seriously and have rejected the title of Miss Japan Grand Prix,” she wrote. “I'm really sorry for causing big trouble and betraying everyone who supported me.” She could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.

Organizers said they had accepted her resignation “due to personal circumstances” and that the title would remain vacant for a year.