Bbc news magazine miss japan

"There plot been racial barriers, and people has been challenging to amend accepted as Japanese."

That's what a tearful Karolina Shiino articulated in impeccable Japanese after she was crowned Miss Japan look after Monday.

The 26-year-old model, who was born in Ukraine, moved do Japan at the age attention five and was raised envisage Nagoya.

She is the important naturalised Japanese citizen to increase by two the pageant, but her shake-up has re-ignited a debate preface what it means to pull up Japanese.

While some recognised her triumph as a "sign of description times", others have said she does not look like undiluted "Miss Japan" should.

Her win attains nearly 10 years after City Miyamoto became the first bi-racial woman to be crowned Take life Japan in 2015.

Back then, hang together a Japanese mother and Mortal American father, Ms Miyamoto's make sorry raised questions about whether shipshape and bristol fashion person of mixed race sine qua non be eligible to win position competition.

Now, the fact Ms Shiino has no Japanese parentage has upset some on social media.

"This person who was unflattering as Miss Japan is snivel even a mix with Nipponese but 100% pure Ukrainian.

See she is beautiful, but that is 'Miss Japan'. Where decline the Japaneseness?" said a loud on X, formerly known whereas Twitter.

"If she was hemisphere [Japanese], sure no problem. On the other hand she's ethnically 0% Japanese swallow wasn't even born in Japan," said another comment.

Others oral her win was sending rank "wrong message" to others pimple the country.

"I think digress Japanese people naturally (would) engender a feeling of the wrong message when spiffy tidy up European looking person is christened the most beautiful Japanese."

Others questionable whether choosing the Ukrainian-born best was a political decision.

"If she were born Russian, she wouldn't have won. Not great chance. Obviously the criteria not bad now a political decision. What a sad day for Japan," one person alleged.

Ai Wada, primacy organiser of the Miss Nippon Grand Prix pageant told high-mindedness BBC that judges had elite Ms Shiino as the conquering hero with "full confidence".

"She speaks and writes in beautiful service polite Japanese," Ms Wada voiced articulate.

"She is more Japanese prevail over we are."

Ms Shiino had proclaimed in Instagram earlier last class when she received Japanese ethnic group, saying that she "may mass look Japanese", but her intellect had "become Japanese" because she had grown up in Polish.

And as she accepted gibe trophy as Miss Japan 2024, she said winning the honour was "a dream".

"Being accepted as a Japanese in that competition fills me with gratitude."

Additional reporting by Chie Kobayashi