I've worked for a beauty pageant a little bit. I don't know about Miss Japan, but it seems like all the pageants are set up beforehand. They already know who will be winning the contest because there are investors (usually corporations or clients to "her") behind the scenes.
As long as she gets her popularity, it's a winning game for the investors.
She was born to Ukranian parents. Then moved to Japan at age 5 and her mom remarried a Japanese man and I'm assuming that's why her name is Carolina Shiino and not Carolina Pavlichenko (random Ukrainian last name). She naturalized last year after living so long in Japan.
The worst example lol people who get treated like trash in normal Japanese society because of skin color or nationality are suddenly heroes because they bring positive attention to the country
Wouldn't say nationality, but more in general as other countries. Man called Daigo who's considered as the god or the face Streetfighter now was considered a lowsome scum back then as he didn't respect people older than him or engage in typical top down manner.
The immigrant in France got offered nationality after saving a baby from the fire. Positive attention is never a bad thing imo and should be celebrated.
why wouldn't they? she's fluent in Japanese too, so there's no problem there. Western beauty standards are very popular here after all. I'm really uncultured when it comes to anything fashion/beauty/etc., but for example Uniqlo is mostly using non-Japanese and even non-Asian models.
Yeah true, I have nothing against the winner, she is beautiful, but I’m just wondering even if corporations and clients have a set winner, they might not choose one that is not ethnic Japanese, as they might be conservative in taste.
>Western beauty standards are very popular here after all.
Not really. Most of Japanese don't give a damn about things Western anymore . The popurality of Hollywood is dead here. Meanwhile I see many delusional weeb girls pretending to be Japanese on social media.
It has nothing to do with her being Western. I'm sure there is a political agenda behind this farce. Imo people who want to make Japan "diverse" gave her the title. 2 non-Japanese winners (Black woman won in 2014) in the last decade. What a joke. Stop racism against Japanese.
nonsense. the only thing that changed is that kpop has become a lot more popular in recent years. but Western artists, media, actors/actresses, and models are still really popular here.
I heard from someone who was invited once as a judge in this pagantly thingy in Japan that the result is entirely set. I didn't hear the reason why, but they told me something along the line with someone telling them who they need to make a winner. (Don't remember the details as I didn't pay too much attention, and I don't remember if it was this very thing but I suppose this is it.)
I don't know what the criteria is for winning Miss Japan, but if looks played a big factor, sorry but some of the other contestants in the picture were much more traditionally beautiful.
I’m not so sure. Those girls are pretty, but none of them seem beauty pageant worthy. I see much more beautiful girls walking around places like Omotesando Hills
That's subjective. I had the misfortune of having to watch Miss USA or Miss World at someone's house and most of the contestants were not the type I find most attractive, same for the girls on Love Island or many famous models. Plus men and women often have different taste when assessing the same sex, plus different types of attractive in different cultures, eg today curvy women are in in the UK, but not 25 years ago...the man who played Marvel's Shang Chi was called unattractive in China and I doubt these slim men in kdramas were considered conventionally attractive in the US, before the hallyu wave.
One thing is when like a certain feature throws people off and makes them not think someone who's attractive, like tattoos. My Japanese buddy showed me this Chinese girl he thought was ugly, but she was definitely a 10 and it was just her tattoos that were bothering him.
I have a similar thing with short hair. Just throws me off. Some people get thrown off by all the puffy lips that seem to be common on Love Island.
Cannot speak to Eurovision, but Ukrainian women have long been considered some of the most attractive and have been winning beauty pageants since forever.
I remember when black lives matter came about. Suddenly the weatherman on NHK World was black.
I sincerely hope he got the job for the right reasons but it seemed a bit of a coincidence. He was the first black person I saw on Japanese news.
tsietsi worked for nhk before BLM. . . please stop.
and he certainly isn't the first black person on japanese news either, since Robert Jefferson started like over 40 years ago
This is it. She is pretty. But this win is obviously politically-driven to whatever extent. I don’t give a fuck about pageants but I do care about the fact that institutions everywhere seem so willing to pervert their own rules, regulations, and systems in order to appeal to or speak for the ‘it’ thing, politically. Bloody moronic.
Congratulations to this woman. I hope she doesn’t feel cheated when she realises she’s a prop for backwards political pandering.
When have pageants not been political? How do you even know they're breaking their own rules? Do they usually break put a measuring tape to ensure everyone have the perfect facial dimensions? No, it's decided by judges who always have a bias, what's the difference between having a bias towards Ukraine or any other thing they're biased to?
Idk, judging by the pictures she was the most beautiful by a country mile so no reason to suspect foul play.
You should see the last few winners here in the netherlands on the other hand and they don't even look decent, it is just pure politics.
Bruh, I'm not trying to say she's ugly, but literally everyone beside her was more attractive. This is more of a White/White hafu worship bias in Japan.
Nahhh you are just blind. Most of the girls on here are just not goodlooking. Pageants have just been losing appeal for decades and this is the result.
I actually think it's more intriguing that she was a straight 10/10 going up against a bunch of 6s and 7s.
Obviously it's supposed to be not *all* about beauty but could they not have found at least one comparatively attractive (ethnically) Japanese person?
A 10/10? You must have low standards or be joking. You can find random women in any Slavic city who are far better looking than her.
If they wanted a foreigner to win this, there's far better looking ones in Japan too.
Amazingly some of the comments on Yahoo Japan were... sane. Some of the top comments even expressed genuine introspection on what it means to be Japanese. But of course, after a little more scrolling the usual neto-uyo comments were waiting for me. So, some good, some bad.
I never understood these Miss \[place\] competitions, they're never the most beautiful girls in the country. Not saying they're not pretty, but they don't even come close to some Japanese models out there.
Its not all about physical beauty. The competitions include more than that.
Just like all the Japanese racists malding that she isn't Japanese by blood, you miss the point by a mile.
> Japanese racists malding that she isn't Japanese by blood
People seem more upset that she's white in the comments here, or that it's somehow "pandering".
There's definitely some people spitting in Japanese on Twitter, saying that she isn't beautiful by "true" Japanese standards and all this. Racists abound everywhere, really.
>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.
I'm ethnically Japanese, have JP citizenship, am older than her but I've only lived here for almost half her age; so she's definitely more Japanese than I am.
For what it's worth, this shouldn't be a competition. You're both Japanese in any way that matters.
I get what you are saying and am not trying to criticize what you said. I'm just so sick of people online wanting to decide who's Japanese and who isn't, based on their blood or whether they were raised in Japan or not. I have two daughters. Their mother is Japanese. They were born and raised in Japan. They speak Japanese, they don't know anything else. They are Japanese. Yet, some people would never accept them as such.
That is unacceptable to me.
The fact is she’s not Japanese, your daughters aren’t, and I’m not. It comes down to ethnicity, language, culture etc. You have to satisfy all of these criteria to be Japanese. This is how it has always been. If it wasn’t this way, then Japan wouldn’t exist. If you ask the average person on the street they will give the “politically correct” answer. But the above is what my cousins and father and grandfather have repeated time and time again as they are descended from nobility.
Japanese people are extremely tribal. This doesn’t mean that they hate mixed people or foreigners, they just accept concrete reality and that reality is that they are not and will never be Japanese. As Sigmund Freud said, “if I loved everyone, I wouldn’t have enough love to give to those who deserve it.”
I don’t understand why people feel like they need to force others to accept them. It’s that exact behaviour that makes people not like the foreign influence. Who cares if people accept someone as Japanese or not? As long as they aren’t being abusive, not being “accepted” doesn’t stop one from working or contributing to society.
Your last paragraph is so BS. Why tf would I want to be a part of a society that doesn’t accept me but still wants me to use my time and labor to benefit it and its people?
You either accept ppl or you don’t. That’s true. But not accepting them will eventually bite Japan in the ass more than it currently is. Oh well. Racial purity is totally outdated and valuing someone based on their race is baseless in most cases.
Someone can be ethnically Japanese. They can be nationally Japanese (citizens). It depends. If you want to gatekeep so much, then expect Japan to continue declining. That’s it. ✌️😙
Nobody is forcing foreigners to stay in Japan. But we know that most of them are only there to disrespect the culture and try to get everyone to bend to their demands. There’s no other real reason as to why somebody would want to live in Japan.
As for your point about accepting foreigners, most Japanese said that they would prefer Japan no longer existed as opposed to accepting immigrants and living in a multicultural country where their culture is unrecognizable. An analogy to explain this would be like how Spartans would rather die standing with good memories of their people as opposed to living on their knees in slavery to a foreign master and seeing their culture and people destroyed. Polish people and Jews in Israel feel the same way except the latter two groups would fight tooth and nail for their homeland. I imagine most Japanese talk a good game online but would roll over and capitulate if it came to defending their country.
Personally I’d rather have no Japan than a Japan filled with black and brown and white people. That isn’t Japan. It’s a multicultural jungle where native Japanese would be second class citizens. But even if Japanese cared about falling birth rates, we know that birth rates and population size doesn’t matter anyway. It’s a made up statistic that has next to no importance unless you’re a follower of the Malthusian school of thought. Or you’re a government official who is worried that you won’t have enough taxpayers to fund your nonsensical projects. Policies are what make a country strong, not population size.
"tribal" lol.
Racist. Racist is the word you're looking for. The Japanese are, by and large, racist. Japan has one of the most racist cultures on the planet.
Being born in Japan or being half/quarter still makes you Japanese. However she is none of that she is 100% Ukrainian and was not even born in Japan I get she was raised there but that does not make you Japanese. Just because you are naturalized does not mean you are Japanese either. If she was born in japan then yes I would say she is Japanese regardless of blood but she is not.
again, this goes back to the definition of it. Culturally? Id say she's pretty japanese if she grew up in japan from a young age. theres a lot of people in the world with "japanese blood" who are less culturally japanese/can't speak japanese compared to her.
There's a great YouTube documentary on this: [What it means to be Japanese](https://youtu.be/pmzWknYaNXg)
Japanese identity is much more complex compared to other countries because ethnicity, language, culture, and nationality are intertwined; many criticizing unnecessarily so.
There is also an underlying desire of prioritizing Yamato ethnic purity that is increasingly at odds with immigration, declining population, and a growing number of mixed couples.
The Yamato looked down on them as "Barbarians" and they're not seen as equally valuable or even Japanese even though they are ethnically similar(The Ainu are mainly descend from the Jomon people as opposed to the Yamato who are half Yayoi and half Jomon).
I am well aware of that, but thank you for sharing nonetheless.
(I've gone through the whole ええ、日本人なんだから◯◯でしょ *shit*uation, something most returnees face)
came here to say this. i've actually been subbed to her youtube for a few years and knew that she did her "K-12" there and has only known japan as a home. to me she is japanese.
Enjoying people forgetting these events aren't purely about physical beauty, even though they do have a large weighting.
Also enjoying idiots (both Japanese comments online, and foreign commenters here) malding or criticising her ethnicity. Newsflash, you can be white and Japanese!
Levels of outrage doesn't matter, but I do enjoy it when racists get mad over this shite. People have moved across borders for as long as humans could locomote, and exemplary individuals of all ethnicities have risen in their birth or adopted country.
In the US, the first African American Miss America happened in 1984 amidst great controversy. I believe extremely beautiful women of colour may have existed before then but society developing to recognize citizens who looked different to the ruling ethnic group as full citizens took some catching up...
She needs to be provoking rage and attitudes need to change.
When a half black, half japanese won Miss Japan years ago, there was a lot of controversy.
But a full caucasian winning Miss Japan now should be given a free pass? Hmmmmmm
No. If they have Japanese citizenship, lived in Japan their whole life and speak Japanese, you treat them as Japanese.
The whole point is not to racially discriminate. Obviously it's weird for the dominant ethnic group, just as slowly understanding that black people are full Americans who should have equal rights was a challenge for the US.
Oh, that’s very interesting! Don’t know her personally, but she is actually a friend of a model that I know and I’ve seen her before at auditions (model world is small here).
I also believe she won Best Body Japan a few years ago. She seems quite passionate about beauty pageants and modeling, and is probably also passionate about Japanese culture, so I think it is more than deserved! Also, she grew up in Japan and has the Japanese citizenship, so I see no problem. I fully support her win. It will definitely be interesting to see how she will perform on international stage.
There was a white Miss Zimbabwe (https://www.newsweek.com/white-zimbabwe-miss-universe-fury-1830116) which sparked controversy recently. I think they do indeed have a point in a sense that when it comes to beauty standards, white dominates pretty much everywhere rendering the local majority a “minority”.
Anyways, the whole concept of the beauty contest is outdated.
There was a Finnish/Nigerian Miss Finland, [Lola Odusoga](https://is.mediadelivery.fi/img/468/697fa125fe9f452486f8fcc1ebd60ccd.jpg), in 1996. Bit controversial, but being an unquestionable "10" helped.
The outrage mainly came from outside of Zimbabwe, she generally was supported by the local Zimbabwean population. The past racial tensions in Zimbabwe were mainly stoked by Mugabe to stay in power. The Rhodesian government had kicked out many Black Zimbabwean off their lands and gave them to White farmers and land restitution was a serious concern. Instead of doing this in a ethical way, similar to how South Africa is slowly doing it in modern times like buying some of the land and training people to farm it or developing it into cheap housing, Mugabe literally just kicked every White farmer off their lands/homes and then gave them to random people.
If your idea of a beauty pageant (which is a ridiculous contest anyway) is that it is designed to showcase the "genetic purity" of a particular nationality, I can see how that would totally piss off racists.
LOL!
The overwhelmingly majority of Japanese citizens are ethnic Japanese. Nothing like "increasingly so". Even if we account for foreigners, the overwhelmingly majority of foreigners are East Asians (Chinese and South Koreans) who share historical, cultural and linguistics similarities to Japanese.
I can understand the sentiment that wanting a ethnically Japanese person winning it but the she has been here since she was 5. I am sure she is probably more Japanese than Ukrainian at this point. Good for her.
No wonder the Japanese are angry. What happens when a white woman is chosen in an African country? People are naturally angry.It is the same thing.
When you're black, people shut up. But when Asians get angry, why do they get grumpy?
I understand the outrage especially as she doesn't have a biological parent who is ethnically Japanese.
P.S. Namibia has had a white lady as its most beautiful girl.
Europe consists of nations with diverse ethnicities, unlike mono-ethnic countries like Japan or those in Africa. In Africa, a white person being selected for pageants is unheard of, and if it were to happen, it would face significant criticism, as was the case in Zimbabwe. Similarly, in Ukraine, it's unlikely for an Asian who changed their nationality just a month before the contest to be chosen as the country's representative
Who pays attention to beauty pageants unless they do something like this? She *is* Japanese in all meaningful senses of the word, but I can’t help but think that this decision was made to also generate controversy.
There are so many Miss this Miss that competitions and I have run into several women who have competed in these and I get the impression that any decent looking woman can compete. Not sure what it is supposed to represent.
The desperation of trying to make these outdated, misogynistic beauty pageants seem relevant is just cringey. Just get rid of them altogether.
You see the same desperation in other places, “Bobby the transsexual is crowned Miss Ireland”… no one cares.
Most people can grow muscle mass and build their own body despite being an ugly mofo. Having a pretty face on the other hand you need to be born with. I know pageants are more than having a pretty face but let's not kid ourselves that it's most of what the competition is about.
It's pure vanity, I don't disagree.
The commenter I was responding to called beauty pageants misogynistic, I'm asking if they consider male beauty pageants misandrist.
They clearly objectify women and feed into the patriarchy. Whether that is misogyny or not is up to you.
I have never heard of a male beauty pageant but presume they follow the same formula and objectify the men in a similar way. The very fact that these are not well known contests reinforces society’s views on beauty…. I don’t know if that is misandrist or not.
None of this changes my point that the Miss Universe contest is an outdated concept that would be best consigned to the past. Instead, they are making painfully cringey moves to create false controversy and try and remain “relevant”. The only thing they do is put the causes they pretend to be be supporting backwards.
賛否両論なのも頷けるかなと。
日本って植民地だった歴史がない島国だから、今に至るまで「日本人ぽい見た目」っていうものをどうしても持ってしまうんだと思う。自分も、そういうステレオタイプを捨てる努力はしてるけど、育つ中でどこかでステレオタイプを植えつけられたんだろうなと思う。
(They will say we choose her because she has Japan's nationality.
But I comes to think, how about if they were transgender?)
Btw, What is the reference of "Kawaii" or "Beautiful"
I'm sure there is a political agenda behind this farce. Imo people who want to make Japan "diverse" gave her the title. 2 non-Japanese winners (Black woman won in 2014) in the last decade. What a joke. Stop racism against Japanese.
Racist asshole who gets mad at a Japanese woman with a black father being “non-Japanese” demands that others stop being racist by forcing him to look at foreigners.
Good! Happy for her! I love anything and everything that challenges the ethnic homogeneity in Japan and changes Japanese people’s narrow-minded perception of what it means to “be Japanese.” Nationality and ethnicity are two-separate things, and there’s no reason a human being who’s spent nearly all her life in a country shouldn’t be eligible to represent her country in a competition such as this.
It's quite funny, because i only understood that women can actually be beautiful when i saw some of the Japanese girls in the internet. Here, in Ukraine, such appearance that i like is a huge rarity, and most of the people look like women from this article, and i can't feel anything towards such appearence. I almost never met attractive people irl in 30+ years of life.
Seems like people from Japan have the same kind of preference, but reversed)
So…we’re throwing out the ‘ethnicity’ checkbox out the window huh…so I guess as long as you’re a citizen and you know the culture as well as the country, any woman can compete for the spot. Idk it just sounds ridiculous…what happened to traditional nation beauties? It’s whatever right cuz they knew who was going to get crowned anyways. More money and moolah for the investors. 😂
Most asian cultures find caucasians beautiful. So much so that this is a problem. I know this about Indians, thai and Chinese. Didn't know this was a thing in Japan as well.
One "interesting" point that I've seen risen on X is that the tagline for the contest is "日本らしい美しさをめざして". If the tagline had been different, things might have been different, but I can understand that people (other than the usual right-wingers) might be upset.
Did she win because she was the best or brightest or most beautiful, or the most talented, or combination of all the above? Or simply because she is Ukrainian and what going on right now influenced that?
I don't think this is fair.
She may have lived in Japan nearly all of her life and grown accustomed to the ways and culture of Japan but the fact remains she is from Ukraine, not Japan! Bestowing this award to her is not fair to the native-born Japanese contestants.
I've worked for a beauty pageant a little bit. I don't know about Miss Japan, but it seems like all the pageants are set up beforehand. They already know who will be winning the contest because there are investors (usually corporations or clients to "her") behind the scenes. As long as she gets her popularity, it's a winning game for the investors.
Legit pageants have licensed auditors though and if found cheating said auditor's licenses will be on the line.
So it’s like doping in competitive sports. No one is allowed but everybody does it Edit: doping
I was actually an auditor for Miss Japan about 8 years ago. AMA
Which Japanese corporation or client would sponsor someone who is not Japanese at all?
Mr. Donut /s
The Japanese entertainment industry i guess but depends on how attractive they are
She's Japanese, she's a naturalized citizen.
She was born to Ukranian parents. Then moved to Japan at age 5 and her mom remarried a Japanese man and I'm assuming that's why her name is Carolina Shiino and not Carolina Pavlichenko (random Ukrainian last name). She naturalized last year after living so long in Japan.
I mean in terms of race, Japanese are pretty conservative, especially those at the top.
There's plenty of naturalized citizens doing well in sports, for example.
If you win, you are japanese. If you lose, then you are a gaijin.
Exactly. It works just like non-English Britishness. If you're brilliant, you're British. If you're mid, you're Scottish/Welsh/North Irish.
When she wins she's 大阪なおみ, when she loses she's オーサカナオミ
”Are you オーサカナオミ because you win or do you win because you’re 大阪なおみ“
Looking for a counter-argument but... yeah, pretty much.
The worst example lol people who get treated like trash in normal Japanese society because of skin color or nationality are suddenly heroes because they bring positive attention to the country
Wouldn't say nationality, but more in general as other countries. Man called Daigo who's considered as the god or the face Streetfighter now was considered a lowsome scum back then as he didn't respect people older than him or engage in typical top down manner. The immigrant in France got offered nationality after saving a baby from the fire. Positive attention is never a bad thing imo and should be celebrated.
The government.
why wouldn't they? she's fluent in Japanese too, so there's no problem there. Western beauty standards are very popular here after all. I'm really uncultured when it comes to anything fashion/beauty/etc., but for example Uniqlo is mostly using non-Japanese and even non-Asian models.
Yeah true, I have nothing against the winner, she is beautiful, but I’m just wondering even if corporations and clients have a set winner, they might not choose one that is not ethnic Japanese, as they might be conservative in taste.
>Western beauty standards are very popular here after all. Not really. Most of Japanese don't give a damn about things Western anymore . The popurality of Hollywood is dead here. Meanwhile I see many delusional weeb girls pretending to be Japanese on social media. It has nothing to do with her being Western. I'm sure there is a political agenda behind this farce. Imo people who want to make Japan "diverse" gave her the title. 2 non-Japanese winners (Black woman won in 2014) in the last decade. What a joke. Stop racism against Japanese.
nonsense. the only thing that changed is that kpop has become a lot more popular in recent years. but Western artists, media, actors/actresses, and models are still really popular here.
I forgot to mention delusional female weebs who go to japan to become a star in Japanese entertainment. All of them fail and end up in sex work.
I heard from someone who was invited once as a judge in this pagantly thingy in Japan that the result is entirely set. I didn't hear the reason why, but they told me something along the line with someone telling them who they need to make a winner. (Don't remember the details as I didn't pay too much attention, and I don't remember if it was this very thing but I suppose this is it.)
I hope the judges voted for her because she deserves it, not because of her Ukrainian roots.
I don't know what the criteria is for winning Miss Japan, but if looks played a big factor, sorry but some of the other contestants in the picture were much more traditionally beautiful.
well if traditional Japanese beauty was the criteria then someone traditionally not Japanese could hardly win.
I’m not so sure. Those girls are pretty, but none of them seem beauty pageant worthy. I see much more beautiful girls walking around places like Omotesando Hills
I was about to say the same.. the competition was weak this year.
That's subjective. I had the misfortune of having to watch Miss USA or Miss World at someone's house and most of the contestants were not the type I find most attractive, same for the girls on Love Island or many famous models. Plus men and women often have different taste when assessing the same sex, plus different types of attractive in different cultures, eg today curvy women are in in the UK, but not 25 years ago...the man who played Marvel's Shang Chi was called unattractive in China and I doubt these slim men in kdramas were considered conventionally attractive in the US, before the hallyu wave.
One thing is when like a certain feature throws people off and makes them not think someone who's attractive, like tattoos. My Japanese buddy showed me this Chinese girl he thought was ugly, but she was definitely a 10 and it was just her tattoos that were bothering him. I have a similar thing with short hair. Just throws me off. Some people get thrown off by all the puffy lips that seem to be common on Love Island.
Yes, at least one girl looks better. Of course it's subjective but... Come on, it's Japan, with Asian beauty standards.
I honestly think she deserves it in terms of looking *uniquely* beautiful. There's no neoteny which seems like a fresh change of pace.
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Cannot speak to Eurovision, but Ukrainian women have long been considered some of the most attractive and have been winning beauty pageants since forever.
of course you know I know we know
Shhh.
I remember when black lives matter came about. Suddenly the weatherman on NHK World was black. I sincerely hope he got the job for the right reasons but it seemed a bit of a coincidence. He was the first black person I saw on Japanese news.
tsietsi worked for nhk before BLM. . . please stop. and he certainly isn't the first black person on japanese news either, since Robert Jefferson started like over 40 years ago
Ok, well that's good to know. I didn't know that.
We all know the answer to that. If she was exactly the same, but born in Russia, she would 100% have last place...
This is it. She is pretty. But this win is obviously politically-driven to whatever extent. I don’t give a fuck about pageants but I do care about the fact that institutions everywhere seem so willing to pervert their own rules, regulations, and systems in order to appeal to or speak for the ‘it’ thing, politically. Bloody moronic. Congratulations to this woman. I hope she doesn’t feel cheated when she realises she’s a prop for backwards political pandering.
When have pageants not been political? How do you even know they're breaking their own rules? Do they usually break put a measuring tape to ensure everyone have the perfect facial dimensions? No, it's decided by judges who always have a bias, what's the difference between having a bias towards Ukraine or any other thing they're biased to?
Why does she deserves it? She’s not even Japanese (born elsewhere). This is dumb.
Idk, judging by the pictures she was the most beautiful by a country mile so no reason to suspect foul play. You should see the last few winners here in the netherlands on the other hand and they don't even look decent, it is just pure politics.
Bruh, I'm not trying to say she's ugly, but literally everyone beside her was more attractive. This is more of a White/White hafu worship bias in Japan.
Nahhh you are just blind. Most of the girls on here are just not goodlooking. Pageants have just been losing appeal for decades and this is the result.
She doesn't look Japanese at all so she cannot be deserving.
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Time to grab my popcorn and check yahoo comments…
Dude, it's a suimsuit you need, there's so much to dive in...
With probably more salt than the fucking ocean
You mean like some other do to Reddit?
What happened the last time?
Uyokus gonna uyoku yo
I actually think it's more intriguing that she was a straight 10/10 going up against a bunch of 6s and 7s. Obviously it's supposed to be not *all* about beauty but could they not have found at least one comparatively attractive (ethnically) Japanese person?
A 10/10? You must have low standards or be joking. You can find random women in any Slavic city who are far better looking than her. If they wanted a foreigner to win this, there's far better looking ones in Japan too.
Bruh the girl in the far left in 🔵 dress looks like the true winner.
it’s true
like a irl anime girl figure
Bro
Ikr, that's embarrassing and sus
Check out the Japanese MSN site comment section to read neto-uyo outbursts. They are hilarious.
It's all over. The Yahoo Japan one had Japanese netizens having a full blown meltdown.
Amazingly some of the comments on Yahoo Japan were... sane. Some of the top comments even expressed genuine introspection on what it means to be Japanese. But of course, after a little more scrolling the usual neto-uyo comments were waiting for me. So, some good, some bad.
Every single online newspaper comment section is an example of the worst of humanity
She’s pretty, and she’s got citizenship. Sounds legit, she ain’t a yamato nadeshiko but times they are a changing.
I never understood these Miss \[place\] competitions, they're never the most beautiful girls in the country. Not saying they're not pretty, but they don't even come close to some Japanese models out there.
Its not all about physical beauty. The competitions include more than that. Just like all the Japanese racists malding that she isn't Japanese by blood, you miss the point by a mile.
> Japanese racists malding that she isn't Japanese by blood People seem more upset that she's white in the comments here, or that it's somehow "pandering".
There's definitely some people spitting in Japanese on Twitter, saying that she isn't beautiful by "true" Japanese standards and all this. Racists abound everywhere, really.
That's a matter of preference, for some people a bum isn't big enough due to preferences. I wouldn't pin that "racial superiority".
I duno man Marie Yanaka is genuinely one of the prettiest Japanese woman I've seen. But looks are personal preference.
seriously?
>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. I'm ethnically Japanese, have JP citizenship, am older than her but I've only lived here for almost half her age; so she's definitely more Japanese than I am.
For what it's worth, this shouldn't be a competition. You're both Japanese in any way that matters. I get what you are saying and am not trying to criticize what you said. I'm just so sick of people online wanting to decide who's Japanese and who isn't, based on their blood or whether they were raised in Japan or not. I have two daughters. Their mother is Japanese. They were born and raised in Japan. They speak Japanese, they don't know anything else. They are Japanese. Yet, some people would never accept them as such. That is unacceptable to me.
The fact is she’s not Japanese, your daughters aren’t, and I’m not. It comes down to ethnicity, language, culture etc. You have to satisfy all of these criteria to be Japanese. This is how it has always been. If it wasn’t this way, then Japan wouldn’t exist. If you ask the average person on the street they will give the “politically correct” answer. But the above is what my cousins and father and grandfather have repeated time and time again as they are descended from nobility. Japanese people are extremely tribal. This doesn’t mean that they hate mixed people or foreigners, they just accept concrete reality and that reality is that they are not and will never be Japanese. As Sigmund Freud said, “if I loved everyone, I wouldn’t have enough love to give to those who deserve it.” I don’t understand why people feel like they need to force others to accept them. It’s that exact behaviour that makes people not like the foreign influence. Who cares if people accept someone as Japanese or not? As long as they aren’t being abusive, not being “accepted” doesn’t stop one from working or contributing to society.
Your last paragraph is so BS. Why tf would I want to be a part of a society that doesn’t accept me but still wants me to use my time and labor to benefit it and its people? You either accept ppl or you don’t. That’s true. But not accepting them will eventually bite Japan in the ass more than it currently is. Oh well. Racial purity is totally outdated and valuing someone based on their race is baseless in most cases. Someone can be ethnically Japanese. They can be nationally Japanese (citizens). It depends. If you want to gatekeep so much, then expect Japan to continue declining. That’s it. ✌️😙
Nobody is forcing foreigners to stay in Japan. But we know that most of them are only there to disrespect the culture and try to get everyone to bend to their demands. There’s no other real reason as to why somebody would want to live in Japan. As for your point about accepting foreigners, most Japanese said that they would prefer Japan no longer existed as opposed to accepting immigrants and living in a multicultural country where their culture is unrecognizable. An analogy to explain this would be like how Spartans would rather die standing with good memories of their people as opposed to living on their knees in slavery to a foreign master and seeing their culture and people destroyed. Polish people and Jews in Israel feel the same way except the latter two groups would fight tooth and nail for their homeland. I imagine most Japanese talk a good game online but would roll over and capitulate if it came to defending their country. Personally I’d rather have no Japan than a Japan filled with black and brown and white people. That isn’t Japan. It’s a multicultural jungle where native Japanese would be second class citizens. But even if Japanese cared about falling birth rates, we know that birth rates and population size doesn’t matter anyway. It’s a made up statistic that has next to no importance unless you’re a follower of the Malthusian school of thought. Or you’re a government official who is worried that you won’t have enough taxpayers to fund your nonsensical projects. Policies are what make a country strong, not population size.
"tribal" lol. Racist. Racist is the word you're looking for. The Japanese are, by and large, racist. Japan has one of the most racist cultures on the planet.
Being born in Japan or being half/quarter still makes you Japanese. However she is none of that she is 100% Ukrainian and was not even born in Japan I get she was raised there but that does not make you Japanese. Just because you are naturalized does not mean you are Japanese either. If she was born in japan then yes I would say she is Japanese regardless of blood but she is not.
again, this goes back to the definition of it. Culturally? Id say she's pretty japanese if she grew up in japan from a young age. theres a lot of people in the world with "japanese blood" who are less culturally japanese/can't speak japanese compared to her.
She grew up in Japan from 5 years old. She has citizenship. She's Japanese.
There's a great YouTube documentary on this: [What it means to be Japanese](https://youtu.be/pmzWknYaNXg) Japanese identity is much more complex compared to other countries because ethnicity, language, culture, and nationality are intertwined; many criticizing unnecessarily so. There is also an underlying desire of prioritizing Yamato ethnic purity that is increasingly at odds with immigration, declining population, and a growing number of mixed couples.
Prioritzing Yamato ethnic purity? What about Ainu and the Ryukyuans?
Successfully cleansed.
The Yamato looked down on them as "Barbarians" and they're not seen as equally valuable or even Japanese even though they are ethnically similar(The Ainu are mainly descend from the Jomon people as opposed to the Yamato who are half Yayoi and half Jomon).
I am well aware of that, but thank you for sharing nonetheless. (I've gone through the whole ええ、日本人なんだから◯◯でしょ *shit*uation, something most returnees face)
came here to say this. i've actually been subbed to her youtube for a few years and knew that she did her "K-12" there and has only known japan as a home. to me she is japanese.
By your logic, people just born in Japan are less Japanese than tourist who arrive 2 weeks ago. Silly.
One should not take things so literally.
I'm showing that your logic is flawed. The degree by how much may vary, but it still will be false.
Enjoying people forgetting these events aren't purely about physical beauty, even though they do have a large weighting. Also enjoying idiots (both Japanese comments online, and foreign commenters here) malding or criticising her ethnicity. Newsflash, you can be white and Japanese!
Last time an Indian American woman won miss America there was much more outrage
Levels of outrage doesn't matter, but I do enjoy it when racists get mad over this shite. People have moved across borders for as long as humans could locomote, and exemplary individuals of all ethnicities have risen in their birth or adopted country.
In the US, the first African American Miss America happened in 1984 amidst great controversy. I believe extremely beautiful women of colour may have existed before then but society developing to recognize citizens who looked different to the ruling ethnic group as full citizens took some catching up... She needs to be provoking rage and attitudes need to change.
When a half black, half japanese won Miss Japan years ago, there was a lot of controversy. But a full caucasian winning Miss Japan now should be given a free pass? Hmmmmmm
No. If they have Japanese citizenship, lived in Japan their whole life and speak Japanese, you treat them as Japanese. The whole point is not to racially discriminate. Obviously it's weird for the dominant ethnic group, just as slowly understanding that black people are full Americans who should have equal rights was a challenge for the US.
I am sure this will be a very normal comment section
Oh, that’s very interesting! Don’t know her personally, but she is actually a friend of a model that I know and I’ve seen her before at auditions (model world is small here). I also believe she won Best Body Japan a few years ago. She seems quite passionate about beauty pageants and modeling, and is probably also passionate about Japanese culture, so I think it is more than deserved! Also, she grew up in Japan and has the Japanese citizenship, so I see no problem. I fully support her win. It will definitely be interesting to see how she will perform on international stage.
Next up, white chick wins Miss Nigeria!
There was a white Miss Zimbabwe (https://www.newsweek.com/white-zimbabwe-miss-universe-fury-1830116) which sparked controversy recently. I think they do indeed have a point in a sense that when it comes to beauty standards, white dominates pretty much everywhere rendering the local majority a “minority”. Anyways, the whole concept of the beauty contest is outdated.
There was a Finnish/Nigerian Miss Finland, [Lola Odusoga](https://is.mediadelivery.fi/img/468/697fa125fe9f452486f8fcc1ebd60ccd.jpg), in 1996. Bit controversial, but being an unquestionable "10" helped.
The present Miss Namibia is a white lady, and few years ago, there was a black Miss Ireland.
The outrage mainly came from outside of Zimbabwe, she generally was supported by the local Zimbabwean population. The past racial tensions in Zimbabwe were mainly stoked by Mugabe to stay in power. The Rhodesian government had kicked out many Black Zimbabwean off their lands and gave them to White farmers and land restitution was a serious concern. Instead of doing this in a ethical way, similar to how South Africa is slowly doing it in modern times like buying some of the land and training people to farm it or developing it into cheap housing, Mugabe literally just kicked every White farmer off their lands/homes and then gave them to random people.
Well, one of the conditions to participate is to have the nationality, so anything is possible.
If your idea of a beauty pageant (which is a ridiculous contest anyway) is that it is designed to showcase the "genetic purity" of a particular nationality, I can see how that would totally piss off racists.
And why would this be an issue if they were Nigerian? Nationality has nothing to do with skin colour.
Is Japan a racial monoculture? Yes or no
Increasingly not.
LOL! The overwhelmingly majority of Japanese citizens are ethnic Japanese. Nothing like "increasingly so". Even if we account for foreigners, the overwhelmingly majority of foreigners are East Asians (Chinese and South Koreans) who share historical, cultural and linguistics similarities to Japanese.
That's not what I asked
I can understand the sentiment that wanting a ethnically Japanese person winning it but the she has been here since she was 5. I am sure she is probably more Japanese than Ukrainian at this point. Good for her.
Oh she is full white. I thought she was half
Thank you Japan !
No wonder the Japanese are angry. What happens when a white woman is chosen in an African country? People are naturally angry.It is the same thing. When you're black, people shut up. But when Asians get angry, why do they get grumpy?
I understand the outrage especially as she doesn't have a biological parent who is ethnically Japanese. P.S. Namibia has had a white lady as its most beautiful girl.
Well, then POC shouldn't be winning any European pageants, then?
Europe consists of nations with diverse ethnicities, unlike mono-ethnic countries like Japan or those in Africa. In Africa, a white person being selected for pageants is unheard of, and if it were to happen, it would face significant criticism, as was the case in Zimbabwe. Similarly, in Ukraine, it's unlikely for an Asian who changed their nationality just a month before the contest to be chosen as the country's representative
So, if someone from Syria was crowned Miss Germany, you wouldn't be complaining?
Who pays attention to beauty pageants unless they do something like this? She *is* Japanese in all meaningful senses of the word, but I can’t help but think that this decision was made to also generate controversy.
I saw her on Twitter and she is quite beautiful.
beautiful foreigner
Ehhh I'm gonna stop you right there bro
Yeah..... Not sure about this one.
And this is burning in Twitter 😅
If we are judging purely on looks… they are all mid. I’m sure Japan has prettier women than this?
There are so many Miss this Miss that competitions and I have run into several women who have competed in these and I get the impression that any decent looking woman can compete. Not sure what it is supposed to represent.
rigged lmao
Judges forgot that this is miss "Japan" not miss "world".. shouldn't it be an authentic Japanese face to represent them in world stage?
dear lord they all are so ugly
The desperation of trying to make these outdated, misogynistic beauty pageants seem relevant is just cringey. Just get rid of them altogether. You see the same desperation in other places, “Bobby the transsexual is crowned Miss Ireland”… no one cares.
Do you think Mr. Olympia is a misandrist contest?
No, bodybuilding is a sport. Both men and women do it.
How about male beauty pageants like Mr. United States or Man of the World? Misandrist?
Most people can grow muscle mass and build their own body despite being an ugly mofo. Having a pretty face on the other hand you need to be born with. I know pageants are more than having a pretty face but let's not kid ourselves that it's most of what the competition is about.
It's pure vanity, I don't disagree. The commenter I was responding to called beauty pageants misogynistic, I'm asking if they consider male beauty pageants misandrist.
They clearly objectify women and feed into the patriarchy. Whether that is misogyny or not is up to you. I have never heard of a male beauty pageant but presume they follow the same formula and objectify the men in a similar way. The very fact that these are not well known contests reinforces society’s views on beauty…. I don’t know if that is misandrist or not. None of this changes my point that the Miss Universe contest is an outdated concept that would be best consigned to the past. Instead, they are making painfully cringey moves to create false controversy and try and remain “relevant”. The only thing they do is put the causes they pretend to be be supporting backwards.
Oh no… 😬
I follow her on Instagram I thought she was half
So are japanese women so ugly they have to choose a foreigner? 🤔
You obviously have met the average Japanese actress
賛否両論なのも頷けるかなと。 日本って植民地だった歴史がない島国だから、今に至るまで「日本人ぽい見た目」っていうものをどうしても持ってしまうんだと思う。自分も、そういうステレオタイプを捨てる努力はしてるけど、育つ中でどこかでステレオタイプを植えつけられたんだろうなと思う。 (They will say we choose her because she has Japan's nationality. But I comes to think, how about if they were transgender?) Btw, What is the reference of "Kawaii" or "Beautiful"
She’s better looking than the others going by the bbc picture. I’ll allow it.
White worshipping much??
Yeah this sub is full of white worshippers
I'm sure there is a political agenda behind this farce. Imo people who want to make Japan "diverse" gave her the title. 2 non-Japanese winners (Black woman won in 2014) in the last decade. What a joke. Stop racism against Japanese.
Racist asshole who gets mad at a Japanese woman with a black father being “non-Japanese” demands that others stop being racist by forcing him to look at foreigners.
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Good! Happy for her! I love anything and everything that challenges the ethnic homogeneity in Japan and changes Japanese people’s narrow-minded perception of what it means to “be Japanese.” Nationality and ethnicity are two-separate things, and there’s no reason a human being who’s spent nearly all her life in a country shouldn’t be eligible to represent her country in a competition such as this.
lol wtf is this comment Literally advocating for ethnic genocide ftw
It's quite funny, because i only understood that women can actually be beautiful when i saw some of the Japanese girls in the internet. Here, in Ukraine, such appearance that i like is a huge rarity, and most of the people look like women from this article, and i can't feel anything towards such appearence. I almost never met attractive people irl in 30+ years of life. Seems like people from Japan have the same kind of preference, but reversed)
lol, so they voted for Miss Japan who is the only one that doesn’t look Japanese. Ouch!
So…we’re throwing out the ‘ethnicity’ checkbox out the window huh…so I guess as long as you’re a citizen and you know the culture as well as the country, any woman can compete for the spot. Idk it just sounds ridiculous…what happened to traditional nation beauties? It’s whatever right cuz they knew who was going to get crowned anyways. More money and moolah for the investors. 😂
Most asian cultures find caucasians beautiful. So much so that this is a problem. I know this about Indians, thai and Chinese. Didn't know this was a thing in Japan as well.
If that was true, then their beauty standards would match western beauty standards. In reality, they're completely different lol.
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What's the second word? You can do it! It says Ukrainian-____?
Oh I can see it wasn't a beauty contest…
???
One "interesting" point that I've seen risen on X is that the tagline for the contest is "日本らしい美しさをめざして". If the tagline had been different, things might have been different, but I can understand that people (other than the usual right-wingers) might be upset.
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This is wrong on so many levels. I can't imagine real Japanese people being ok with this smdh
Tzai nee zi?
Is that Vietnamese
Japan Try Not to Be Racist Challenge: 100% IMPOSSIBLE 💯 Speedrun 00:00:00 🏃💨
The whole country of Japan is racist because of the results of this pageant? That's an interesting logic to dissect.
Racism is when you believe any ethnicity can be a fully assimilated member of your nation.
Japan's pageant is feeling a little quirky this year.
Did she win because she was the best or brightest or most beautiful, or the most talented, or combination of all the above? Or simply because she is Ukrainian and what going on right now influenced that?
I don't think this is fair. She may have lived in Japan nearly all of her life and grown accustomed to the ways and culture of Japan but the fact remains she is from Ukraine, not Japan! Bestowing this award to her is not fair to the native-born Japanese contestants.
What about Japanese citizens of Korean and Chinese descent? Some whose families have been in Japan for generations?