In 2015, when Ariana Miyamoto, whose father is African-American, became the first hafu (multi-racial) woman to represent Japan at the Miss Universe pageant, some in her country, which is one of the least racially diverse, were not happy. She was forced to defend herself to reporters arguing that she was not Japanese enough to represent the country on an international stage, averring that she was “Japanese on the inside”. She had hoped to change attitudes in the country, where 98 per cent of the population counts itself completely Japanese.
She might have succeeded because another hafu has just been crowned Miss Japan, and will represent the country at the Miss World contest later this year. Her name is Priyanka Yoshikawa, and she was born in Tokyo to an Indian father and a Japanese mother, speaks fluent Japanese and has an elephant trainer’s licence for “colour” on her resume.
“Before Ariana, ‘hafu' girls couldn’t represent Japan”, Yoshikawa told AFP. “That’s what I thought too,” she added. “I didn’t challenge it until this day. Ariana encouraged me a lot by showing me and showing all mixed girls the way.”
The video above shows the moment she was crowned. This video from AFP presents snippets of her training.
Yoshikawa’s family is also a part of Indian history. Mahatma Gandhi once stayed at her politician-grandfather’s house for two weeks in Kolkata. After her victory, there was some grumbling on social media about people once again questioning if she was Japanese enough, but that does not compare to the racist incidents she has had to face in the past.
“When I came back to Japan, everyone thought I was a germ,” she recalled in an interview to AFP. “Like if they touched me they would be touching something bad. But I’m thankful because that made me really strong.”
Yoshikawa will compete in the Miss World pageant scheduled to take place in Washington in December.
Here's the trailer for Hafu: the mixed-race experience in Japan, which captures the stories of hafus in the country. Nearly 200,000 mixed race children are born in Japan each year.
A website called The Hafu Project also documents the experience of multi-racial Japanese people. In the video below, the two founders of the project ask passersby on a street questions about whether they have had interactions with hafus, and what image they have of them.
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