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The foreign-born Miss Japan winner has renounced her title after a newspaper reported her affair with a married man, BI writes.

Model Karolina Shiino, 26, became the first woman of European descent to win the Japanese national beauty pageant on January 22. She was born in Ternopil, Ukraine, and became a Japanese citizen in 2022 after moving to the country at the age of five with her mother, who married a Japanese man.

Shiino's victory sparked controversy among social media users. Some accused the competition organizers of “whitening” the nation. Others suggested that Shiino's victory could be an opportunity to challenge traditional ideas about what it means to be Japanese.

The conversation about Shiino's heritage, however, came to an abrupt end when she announced plans to relinquish her title. This comes after local tabloid Shukan Bunshun reported that she was in a relationship with a married man.

The Miss Japan Association initially defended Shiino and said she did not know the man was married, BBC News reported. But then it retracted its previous statement, saying that the model admitted that she knew that her lover was married.

Shiino said she was relinquishing her title and regretting "the enormous trouble I caused and the betrayal of those who supported me." Her resignation is significant: it prematurely ends an important debate about Japanese identity that has not yet been resolved.

The model was criticized by some viewers who argued that she did not represent "true Japanese beauty," which is stated as the official goal of the Miss Japan Association, The Japan Times reported.

Meanwhile, others wondered whether Shiino was hindering the promotion of traditional Japanese beauty standards. “If the Miss Japan pageant is based on the concept of beauty, I personally would like it to be based on Japanese beauty standards,” historian Hiroe Yamashita wrote on X. “But with the emergence of Caroline Shiino, an (ethnic) Japanese girl has no chance of winning in keeping with modern beauty values.”

There is also the issue of cultural identity.

Even though Shiino has lived in Japan for more than 20 years, she said she didn't feel accepted as a Japanese citizen until she won the competition. In her acceptance speech, the model said there were "racial barriers" and "it was difficult to be accepted as Japanese."

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