Ariana Miyamoto, recently crowned as Miss Universe Japan, is facing criticism that she isn’t “Japanese” enough to represent the country in next year’s Miss Universe pageant.
The daughter of a Japanese mother and African-American father, Miyamoto was raised in Nagasaki. She sparked debate after introducing herself to Japanese press as being mixed-race, known as “hafu” in Japan. She explained that she is Japanese on the inside even if she doesn’t
"look Japanese" on the outside, Kotaku.com reported.
Miyamoto, 20, spent her high school years in the United States before returning to Japan and pursuing modeling.
“Although some people are against her acting as a representative for Japan due to her mixed heritage, she is also receiving a lot of support,”
said RocketNews24, a website based in Tokyo.
Miyamoto, who is fluent in Japanese and holds a 5th degree mastery of Japanese calligraphy, is the first multiracial contestant to win the Miss Universe Japan crown.
"The selection of Ariana Miyamoto as this year's Miss Universe Japan is a huge step forward in expanding the definition of what it means to be Japanese,"
Megumi Nishikura, who co-directed the film “Hafu,” told NBC News. "The controversy that has erupted over her selection is a great opportunity for us Japanese to examine how far we have come from our self-perpetuated myth of homogeneity while at the same time it shows us how much further we have to go."
Japan counts more than 98 percent of the population as Japanese nationalists. But the country is changing, with more than 20,000 half-Japanese babies born there each year.
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