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Lorna Hanson profiles Nagasaki’s own Miss Universe trailblazer, Ariana Miyamoto.
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he’s beauty and she’s grace, she’s Miss…Japan?
What does a Japanese person look like? Ask anyone around the globe and two answers will be paramount: straight black hair and pale skin. They may even fall further into racist stereotypes and mention geishas with almond eyes and blood-red lips, or teenagers dressed to the nines in imaginative Harajuku fashions. However, the fact remains that none of these answers tell the whole story. The paradigm of Japanese beauty has been selected as Ariana Miyamoto, the first ever mixed-
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race winner of Miss Universe Japan, and yes, she is Japanese. At 1.73 meters, Miyamoto stands tall, and proud, to represent her country in the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. On March 12th, 2015, Miyamoto went from being a virtual unknown, to a household name, to a person confronting conventional notions of Japanese identity, all while planted in the limelight. She carries herself with a dauntless smile—one she’s sure to need at the upcoming Miss Universe pageant.
May/June 2015 | nagazasshi