Abstract
ABSTRACT In 2015 and 2016, Ariana Miyamoto and Priyanka Yoshikawa became the first and second “hāfu” (half; multiracial) contestants to be crowned Miss Universe Japan and Miss World Japan respectively. Following their win, they were alternately ignored in mainstream media, lambasted online for not being “jun-nihonjin” (pure Japanese), and celebrated for heralding a multiracial and multiethnic Japan. I explore these discourses by examining how the two beauty queens were represented in Japanese-language and English-language news media and Girls Channel, an online forum popular among young women. Drawing on discourse analysis, I argue beauty pageants are important sites for understanding how race, gender, and ethnicity are complexly constructed in Japan. On one level, this stems from Japan’s racialized ideologies of nation and long history of subjugating racioethnic minorities, but on another level, it is intertwined with classist and gendered beauty ideals of looking Japanese in beauty pageants. Looking Japanese is also informed by what I call “racialized privilege,” invisible unearned advantages conferred upon jun-nihonjin based on their racioethnicity and, for women, tied to lineage (one’s ancestors) and colorism (preference for lighter skin). Ultimately, this article aims to decenter EuroAmerican-centric media research on gender, beauty, and racioethnicity.
Published Version
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