The 26-year-old model, who was born in Ukraine and moved to Japan at the age of five, was recently crowned Miss Japan, sparking a heated debate about national identity.
Carolina Shiino speaks and writes perfect Japanese. She has spent most of her life in Japan and she identifies as Japanese. But she wasn't born in Japan, and most importantly, she doesn't look Japanese. And as the newly selected Miss Japan, for many, that's a big problem. Karolina, who was born in Ukraine, was the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win a national beauty contest, and while some people accept her victory as a “sign of the times,'' others find it hard to accept. Everyone agrees on the beauty of this young woman, but the fact that a European woman was chosen as Miss Japan is completely unacceptable.
Photo provided by: Miss Japan Association
“This person who was chosen as Miss Japan is 100% pure Ukrainian, not even mixed race with Japanese. I know she is beautiful, but this is “Miss Japan''. What's so Japanese about it? ” someone wrote on her X (Twitter).
“If she was half-Japanese [Japanese], Of course no problem. However, she is not ethnically Japanese and she was not born in Japan,” another source commented.
Ai Wada, organizer of the Miss Japan Grand Prix, told the BBC that the judges voted for Shiino with “full confidence” and that her participation was “an opportunity to rethink what beauty is in Japan.” It gave me,” he said.
Photo provided by: Miss Japan Association
“After receiving today's results, I am convinced of one thing.Japanese beauty does not lie in appearance or bloodline, but in our hearts,'' Wada said.
But the organizers' messages did little to calm spirits on social media, where critical posts continue to spread. People complained that crowning a European woman as Miss Japan sent a message that it would cause chaos in Japanese society, while others simply said they thought the decision was ridiculous.
As for Carolina Shiino, she said that she considers herself to be Japanese in both her “speech and heart” and that she hopes to someday contribute to the realization of a society in which “people are not judged by their appearance.”
Shiino said, “I have faced many times the wall of not being recognized as a Japanese person, so I am filled with gratitude to be recognized as a Japanese person at this tournament.''
Karolina's story is similar to that of Brooke Bourque Jackson, a white woman who controversially won the title of Miss Zimbabwe despite being born and raised in an African country.