Surprise for Japanese beauty

ARIANA Miyamoto had not planned to enter a Japanese beauty contest because she thought her multiracial origins meant she would not win. Then a multiracial friend — who felt unaccepted by the Japanese — killed himself.

So to raise awareness about the way people who are “different” are treated, Miyamoto , entered the pageant — and became Miss Japan.

The daughter of a Japanese woman and an AfricanAmerican man, she was born and brought up in Japan, where her bronze skin and height of 1.73m are unusual. —