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Biracial Miss Japan Ariana Miyamoto is Changing Perceptions of Beauty in Japan
Noël DuanAssistant EditorMarch 24, 2015
Biracial Miss Japan Ariana Miyamoto is Changing Perceptions of Beauty in Japan
Ariana Miyamoto is Miss Japan.
Ariana Miyamoto is Japanese by legal definition. The 20-year-old was born in Japan. She is a Japanese citizen. She grew up in Japan. She is also Japanese by beauty pageant definition—she was just crowned Miss Japan to represent the island nation in the Miss Universe pageant. But in spite of her impressive accomplishments and pride in her nationality, Miyamoto has been receiving criticism around the web for not being Japanese enough.
Miyamoto’s mother is Japanese and her father is African American. Miyamoto is the first biracial Miss Japan, and the first half-Japanese, half-black woman to compete in Miss Universe. But she is doing so with some criticism from citizens in her own country. She told Japanese press that “while I don’t look ‘Japanese’ on the outside, on the inside, there are many Japanese things about me.”
On GirlsChannel, a popular web forum dedicated to commentary about Japanese stars, there was complaint about how Miyamoto was chosen over other beautiful contestants who looked more traditionally Japanese. However, there was also an outcry of support for the pageant’s decision. One commenter wrote, “Who cares? All that matters is that she is a citizen born in Japan and she loves our country.”
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Ariana Miyamoto upon being crowned Miss Japan 2015.
Miyamoto faces a high chance of doing well in the Miss Universe pageant, which favors crowning leggy, tanned, Gisele Bündchen-doppelganger pageant queens with Victoria’s Secret blowouts. Countries that have changed their judging standards from local ideals of beauty to globalized ideals of beauty have done well. For example, in the preface for Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, author Susan Bordo shares the anecdote of how Nigeria’s Miss World contestants used to do very poorly at the Miss World competition because they were representative of local standards of beauty. When an entrepreneur, inspired by Hollywood, entered a light-skinned and very thin contestant named Agbani Darego into the competition, she subsequently became the first black African to win Miss World. Japan has won Miss Universe twice: in 2007 and in 1959—and it is the only East Asian country to have ever won.
image
Miss Kyoto with Ariana Miyamoto, who competed as Miss Nagasaki in the Miss Japan pageant.
The traditional definition of being Japanese extends far beyond just looking East Asian. There have extensively studied cases of discrimination against Japanese-born Koreans and Japanese-born Chinese in Japan. The country has held a tumultuous history on the continent of Asia, and up until 1853 when Matthew Perry led his four ships to Tokyo Bay, Japan had been closed off to the rest of the world in attempts to maintain its solid Japanese identity and culture. Being Japanese has always been a fairly narrow definition.
The choice to crown Miyamoto as Miss Japan is not just one that expands and contests the idea of whose ideal beauty represents a country—but is also a strategic motion by the Miss Japan Organization to remain competitive in the Miss Universe arena.
Noël DuanAssistant EditorMarch 24, 2015
Biracial Miss Japan Ariana Miyamoto is Changing Perceptions of Beauty in Japan
Ariana Miyamoto is Miss Japan.
Ariana Miyamoto is Japanese by legal definition. The 20-year-old was born in Japan. She is a Japanese citizen. She grew up in Japan. She is also Japanese by beauty pageant definition—she was just crowned Miss Japan to represent the island nation in the Miss Universe pageant. But in spite of her impressive accomplishments and pride in her nationality, Miyamoto has been receiving criticism around the web for not being Japanese enough.
Miyamoto’s mother is Japanese and her father is African American. Miyamoto is the first biracial Miss Japan, and the first half-Japanese, half-black woman to compete in Miss Universe. But she is doing so with some criticism from citizens in her own country. She told Japanese press that “while I don’t look ‘Japanese’ on the outside, on the inside, there are many Japanese things about me.”
On GirlsChannel, a popular web forum dedicated to commentary about Japanese stars, there was complaint about how Miyamoto was chosen over other beautiful contestants who looked more traditionally Japanese. However, there was also an outcry of support for the pageant’s decision. One commenter wrote, “Who cares? All that matters is that she is a citizen born in Japan and she loves our country.”
image
Ariana Miyamoto upon being crowned Miss Japan 2015.
Miyamoto faces a high chance of doing well in the Miss Universe pageant, which favors crowning leggy, tanned, Gisele Bündchen-doppelganger pageant queens with Victoria’s Secret blowouts. Countries that have changed their judging standards from local ideals of beauty to globalized ideals of beauty have done well. For example, in the preface for Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, author Susan Bordo shares the anecdote of how Nigeria’s Miss World contestants used to do very poorly at the Miss World competition because they were representative of local standards of beauty. When an entrepreneur, inspired by Hollywood, entered a light-skinned and very thin contestant named Agbani Darego into the competition, she subsequently became the first black African to win Miss World. Japan has won Miss Universe twice: in 2007 and in 1959—and it is the only East Asian country to have ever won.
image
Miss Kyoto with Ariana Miyamoto, who competed as Miss Nagasaki in the Miss Japan pageant.
The traditional definition of being Japanese extends far beyond just looking East Asian. There have extensively studied cases of discrimination against Japanese-born Koreans and Japanese-born Chinese in Japan. The country has held a tumultuous history on the continent of Asia, and up until 1853 when Matthew Perry led his four ships to Tokyo Bay, Japan had been closed off to the rest of the world in attempts to maintain its solid Japanese identity and culture. Being Japanese has always been a fairly narrow definition.
The choice to crown Miyamoto as Miss Japan is not just one that expands and contests the idea of whose ideal beauty represents a country—but is also a strategic motion by the Miss Japan Organization to remain competitive in the Miss Universe arena.
Comments
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Smash.
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Anally
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Probably a wack ? but lemme find out anyway...
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I love how you can just mix some blackness in a female and that ? has dominant features. Last but not least, most of the time, the chick be fine as hell.
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Black and Asian is usually a damn good mix for women.
I wonder what Musashi has to say about this though. -
Amerie>>>>>
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I love how you can just mix some blackness in a female and that ? has dominant features. Last but not least, most of the time, the chick be fine as hell.
Black Excellence -
Mixed females stay winning.
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Last but not least, most of the time, the chick be fine as hell.
Mixed broads be hit or miss lije any otha ?
nall ? -
Man, I'm going back to smash.
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ThaNubianGod wrote: »Mixed females stay winning.
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Damn shame!!
The beauty queen criticized for not being Japanese enough
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/25/asia/japans-biracial-beauty-queen/index.html
Tokyo (CNN)A biracial beauty queen in Japan is facing criticism for not being Japanese enough.
Half-Japanese and half African-American, Miss Nagasaki Ariana Miyamoto is the first-ever mixed-race Miss Universe Japan.
Some say she doesn't represent Japan's demographic, while others champion the model, proud that she is overcoming racial hurdles and helping to expand the definition of what it means to be Japanese. -
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Give her da ?
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I'm sure people probably complain whenever a light skinned chick is crowned Miss Haiti, too.
*shrugs* -
black people. we win again
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she gonna have to deny her ties to minister farrakhan
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MIXEDEXCELLENCE
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perspective@100 wrote: »she gonna have to deny her ties to minister farrakhan
Wait what? -
Wooo, im making kids on sight ? .
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She look like ,what pico would of look like, if pico looked good .
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Edit: ? didn't load.
