A case of beauty and the beast
◆ The Miss Japan controversy may be indicative of a racism record that’s less than squeaky clean
Beauty queen Carolina Shiino was born in Ukraine, but moved to Japan when she was five
The winner of this year’s Miss Japan contest, Carolina Shiino, was particularly emotional when she accepted her award – even for a beauty queen. “There have been racial barriers, and it has been challenging to be accepted as Japanese,” said the first naturalised citizen to win the title. Her point was proven almost immediately.
“This person who was chosen as Miss Japan is not even a mix with Japanese, but 100 per cent pure Ukrainian,” said one observer on X. “Understand she is beautiful, but this is 'Miss Japan'. Where is the Japaneseness?”.
The irony is Ms Shiino is Japanese – and very much considers herself to be. Born in Ukraine, she moved to Japan when she was five and grew up in Nagoya after her Ukrainian mother married a Japanese man. She speaks apparently flawless Japanese and was formally naturalised last year.
She is not the first winner of the accolade to spark controversy due to her ethnicity. Ariana Miyamoto, crowned Miss Japan in 2015, had a Japanese mother and African American father, raising questions among Japanese citizens as to whether someone who was mixed race should be eligible for the prize.
Japan has an unusually low level of immigration, making it one of the most racially homogenous of the G20 nations.
At the end of June 2022, there were 2,760,635 foreigners residing in Japan – just 2.2 per cent of the country of 125 million people. By contrast, in Scotland, the proportion of residents not born in the UK comprises 7.7 per cent.
Japan’s racism record is also less than squeaky clean. In 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said 40 per cent of 4,000 surveyed foreign nationals in Japan said they could not access housing simply because they were foreign nationals, while 25 per cent had been refused employment for the same reason.
A wariness of foreigners is an issue that has isolated Japan in many ways, both culturally and physically. Yet it is not a view every Japanese person holds. Ai Wada, the organiser of the Miss Japan Grand Prix pageant, stood by the decision to crown Ms Shiino, saying she speaks and writes in “beautiful and polite Japanese". She said: "She is more Japanese than we are."