“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.
I actually rather like situations like this, it’s like a real-life Twilight Zone plot. Over in Japan they place importance on the distinction between those ethnicities, but we simply don’t see the difference. Meanwhile I’m sure a random person from Japan would be baffled by how differently British and Irish people were treated historically in the United States - they’re basically identical, after all, how can you even tell them apart?