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Carolina Shiino, 26, was selected as Miss Japan on Monday, January 22. A coronation that has sparked controversy over Japanese identity, as the young woman who received citizenship is of Ukrainian descent.
Monday, January 22, 2024 will be marked with a white stone in the Land of the Rising Sun. This is actually the first time that a naturalized woman has won the prestigious Miss Japan pageant in a country where the idea of identity remains controversial. If Carolina Shiino’s enthronement is controversial today, it is because for some it represents a significant evolution in the Japanese way of thinking, and for others a complete aberration. Decoding:
From Ukraine to Japan
Born in Ternopil, eastern Ukraine, Karolina Shiino was only 5 years old when she arrived in Japan with her parents, both Ukrainians. Despite her long years on Japanese soil, the young woman was naturalized by 2022, at the age of 24. “There were racial barriers and it was hard to be accepted as Japanese,” Carolina Shiino echoed after her coronation. Being recognized as Japanese in this competition fills me with gratitude.”
Karolina Shiino’s victory in Japan caused a reaction. On the one hand, the “modernists”, who believe that the coronation of a young woman turns the country towards the reality of its time, on the other hand, the fierce conservatives, who protest against the fact that she is not even of Japanese parents. According to them, the new “Miss Japan” is not a “real Japanese woman” and should not represent the country in any way. Ai Wada, the organizer of the Miss Japan Grand Prix, announced in anticipation of the inevitable dispute. BBC: On January 24, Carolina Shiino was chosen with “full confidence” due to her perfect command of the language and customs of the country, even to the point that the young woman was “more Japanese.” [qu’eux] “.
This is not the first time that the question of identity has arisen during the Miss Japan pageant. In 2015, when Ariana Miyamoto (born to an African-American father and a Japanese mother) won the pageant, she received a lot of derogatory comments and insults, with some netizens calling her “hafu”, a term derived from; English “half”, which would mean he is only half Japanese and therefore not of “pure blood”.
A year later, it was the turn of Indian-Japanese Priyanka Yoshikawa to be subjected to embarrassing insults after being selected in the Miss Japan 2016 pageant.
A conflict of identity that reveals all the ambiguity and duality of Japan, where conservatism clashes with the desires of modernity of a part of the population. As the first Miss Japan to be naturalized, Karolina Shiino today stands as a symbol of considerable mental progress in the Land of the Rising Sun, although her crowning remains hotly contested.
Source: Le Figaro
