Miss World Japan Called ‘Dirty’ for Being Biracial
Newly crowned Miss World Japan Priyanka Yoshikawa has sufferred discrimnation due to her biracial nature to the point where she was called dirty, and the beauty queen would very much like for that percwption to change.
According to her;
“Growing up in Japan, everyone thought I was a germ. Like, if they touched me they would be touching something bad,” says Priyanka Yoshikawa.
It’s an experience she wants no one else to endure. The half-Indian, half-Japanese English teacher crowned Miss World Japan on Monday has promised to “change perceptions” about haafu, or people with one non-Japanese parent, in a country where they’re sometimes associated with a “lack of purity.”
A twitter user commented after Yoshikawa’s win. “It’s like we’re saying a pure Japanese face can’t be a winner.” Others called her “dirty”.
As Yoshikawa puts it, “We have problems, we’ve been struggling and it hurts.”
“Yes, my dad is Indian and I’m proud of it,” she adds. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not Japanese.” Yoshikawa—who will vie for the Miss World title in December—says she was inspired by Miss Universe Japan 2015 Ariana Miyamoto, whose mother is Japanese and father is African-American.”
Before Ariana, haafu girls couldn’t represent Japan,” says Yoshikawa, but she wants to push perceptions further.
“When I’m abroad, people never ask me what mix I am,” says the beauty queen, who was born in Tokyo but spent years of her childhood in India and the US. “As Miss Japan, hopefully I can help change perceptions so that it can be the same here, too. The beauty queen concluded.
