this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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141
Ukrainian-born model winning Miss Japan re-ignites identity debate (www.bbc.com)
submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world
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"There have been racial barriers, and it has been challenging to be accepted as Japanese."

That's what a tearful Carolina Shiino said in impeccable Japanese after she was crowned Miss Japan on Monday.

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

She is the first naturalised Japanese citizen to win the pageant, but her victory has re-ignited a debate on what it means to be Japanese.

While some recognised her victory as a "sign of the times", others have said she does not look like what a "Miss Japan" should.

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[–] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 91 points 2 years ago (42 children)

She grew up in Japan. All her friends are Japanese. Her life experience is of Japanese society and culture. She's been through it all. What is she if not Japanese? Get over it.

I am part Japanese myself and the language is literally my mother tongue, but when I go to Japan to visit family, I always feel alienated because I don't look the part. Don't get me wrong. People are very polite to foreigners, but you will always be a foreigner. Even when I spent a year at a Japanese elementary school, I felt this persistent sense of not belonging.

But maybe things are starting to change? I admittedly have not been back in a couple of decades. I hope so.

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[–] Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 68 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

If Japan doesn't want to go into a death spiral as it's population shrinks they will need to get used to the idea of immigrants being common, and being a Japanese citizen is what makes you Japanese.

[–] Gigan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

That's how it works in America, but not every country is so progressive.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Half our country still struggles with that

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 22 points 2 years ago

You say you were born here, but where are you from?

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I am very mixed race, including 18% native american and 24% west African (slave). That's according to DNA analysis. According to my grandmother's genealogy efforts, the only member to immigrate to the US after 1776 was Irish and he married the "creole" (white+black+native+???) plantation owners daughter. Resistance was futile. He was assimilated.

So most of my bloodline has been here since the start, 18% before that, but because I am not white and my features' origins are hard to define, I get asked where I am from fairly often. I've been even told to go back to my country.

Racism and xenophobia are dumb.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

The other option is "death spiral as its population shrinks", I suppose there's nothing stopping Japan from choosing that instead.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

This is not progressive. It was meant specifically to end slavery.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

Locking the thread... This is one of those stories that as soon as I saw it, my gut reaction was "Oh, no good will come from this."

Lots of reports, overt racism, covert racism, comments removed, users banned...

Saving you from yourselves. This is why we can't have nice things.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 4 points 2 years ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

That's what a tearful Carolina Shiino said in impeccable Japanese after she was crowned Miss Japan on Monday.

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

Her win comes nearly 10 years after Ariana Miyamoto became the first bi-racial woman to be crowned Miss Japan in 2015.

Back then, with a Japanese mother and African American father, Ms Miyamoto's victory raised questions about whether a person of mixed race should be eligible to win the competition.

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

Ai Wada, the organiser of the Miss Japan Grand Prix pageant told the BBC that judges had chosen Ms Shiino as the winner with "full confidence".

The original article contains 421 words, the summary contains 130 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Buttttt, she no looky japaneseee.

Funny how ethic actors face the same kinds of issues.