Cal's Lucas Shanghai Correspondent

Shanghai Correspondent

Updated Friday, January 26, 2024-21:38

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From

Ternopil

to

Nagoya

there are 8,420 kilometers. The first is a city in Ukraine, famous for a renowned medical university, which was attacked by the invading Russian army in May last year. The second, the fourth largest city in Japan, is known for being a major manufacturing center and for its large halls filled with

pachinko

, as slot machines are known. But there is something, or rather someone, that unites these two cities.

Carolina Shiino

was born in Ternopil

. Her mother, Saruk, who was divorced from her first husband, met a Japanese man in the early 2000s. They married and the couple, accompanied by five-year-old Shiino,

moved to live in Nagoya.

Little by little

the girl became familiar with the culture and the language

. She became fluent in Japanese better than her mother tongue. She integrated as another national into an ethnically homogeneous society, always very conservative when it came to opening its doors to immigrants. But

Shiino broke down all barriers.

Two decades after leaving Ternopil behind and arriving in Nagoya, Shiino was elected Miss Japan a few days ago. The judges of the popular contest did not hesitate.

Today's model of Ukrainian blood is just another Japanese

, as fit as the other women who participated. But her victory has revived in the Asian country an old racial debate about identity that many believed had been buried long ago.

"I have faced many racial barriers throughout my life

that have often prevented me from accepting myself as Japanese. Therefore, I am filled with gratitude to be recognized in this competition as Japanese," Shiino said through tears after being crowned.

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He was able to enter the contest because

he acquired citizenship a couple of years ago

. She is now the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the contest, demonstrating that the place where one is born is not decisive when feelings and deep roots in the host country come into play.

"I applied for the contest because my goal was to create a society where people are not judged by their appearance," said the model, who recalled some episodes she experienced at school that made her rethink her identity.

"

Your hair is a different color." "Your nose is much bigger."

She had been hearing these words since elementary school—she was a very attractive girl, blonde and much taller than her classmates—until when she entered the Faculty of Letters at Meiji Gakuin University, a Christian center in Tokyo.

Her modeling career started when she was 15 years old.

But it was not until after graduating that she worked regularly for fashion magazines, at advertising events and for television advertisements.

Her victory as Miss Japan has sparked a

heated national debate

throughout the country, with various reactions on social networks. Many were not amused, claiming that her win sent "the wrong message" that "a person with European appearance is the most beautiful Japanese."

Other comments suggest that the

decision to crown Shiino

was related to the war in Ukraine. "If I had been born in Russia I wouldn't have had a single chance. Obviously, the criterion now is political," said one user on X. "What a sad day for Japan," another stressed.

"Racial discrimination is absolutely unacceptable,"

historian Hiroe Yamashita also wrote. "But if the Miss Japan pageant is based on the concept of beauty, I personally wish it were based on Japanese beauty standards."

In an interview with CNN, Shiino explained that she has always faced many difficulties in being accepted as a local due to her appearance and that she hopes her victory will change opinions about who can be considered Japanese.

Japan's traditionally conservative society still carries a legacy of centuries of

cultural isolation and strict immigration laws.

But the conservative view on immigration, according to national surveys, seems to be changing little by little due to the major demographic problem facing the current third-largest economy in the world, with a labor force that is plummeting due to the

aging population

and insufficient birth rates.

"This contest has given us the opportunity to think about

what Japanese beauty is,"

the Miss Japan organization said. Shiino's victory comes nearly one after

Ariana Miyamoto

became the first biracial woman to be crowned

Miss Japan in 2015

. Back then, with a Japanese mother and African-American father, Miyamoto's victory already raised questions about whether a

person of "mixed race"

should be able to enter the contest. The following year, the band went to Priyanka Yoshikawa, a model with an Indian father.

Shiino has been the 56th winner of the oldest beauty pageant in this country. It was in 1950 that the

Yomiuri Shimbun

newspaper , the first organizer, began selecting models as

"goodwill ambassadors" to travel to the United States

as a message of gratitude for supplies sent from Washington to help suffering Japanese children. malnutrition after World War II.