Ariana Miyamoto is Miss Japan. (Photo: Instagram)
Ariana Miyamoto is making history, being the first biracial pageant winner in Japan and she’s Black! Of course the media is all ove this story. Get more of this story via Yahoo Beauty below.
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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