Ariana Miyamoto was born May 12, 1994, in Sasebo, Japan. She is a Japanese citizen. She speaks Japanese fluently. She spent her childhood years in Japan. She identifies as Japanese. Miyamoto’s beauty, talent and strong sense of patriotism enabled her to win the 2015 Miss Japan Pageant. With this victory, Miyamoto will represent Japan in the Miss Universe Pageant. Despite her qualifications and talent, Miyamoto has faced criticism, and people have questioned her ability to represent Japan.
It’s because she is only “half” Japanese.
Miyamoto was raised by a Japanese mother and an African-American father. This makes her Afro-Asian or bi-racial, but the term critics have used is “hafu.” This is a term in Japanese that identifies a person as not fully Japanese. This term is typically not used in a positive fashion and has a xenophobic connotation.
Since winning the title of Miss Japan, Miyamoto has been on the defensive with Japanese media outlets. A number of them have questioned her ability to represent Japan. But she has acknowledged that while she may not look Japanese, she sees herself as such.
Miyamoto has had to go above and beyond to prove just how Japanese she is. Perhaps this is because Japan is known for its xenophobia and resistance to outside influence. This is evident with reports of Japanese policemen questioning foreigners and some landlords refusing to lease apartments to foreigners.
What’s more interesting is the fact Miyamoto has to prove she is Japanese mainly to Japanese media outlets. American news outlets appear to acknowledge her as a Japanese woman who happens to be half black. But the idea that she is anything other than Japanese is harped on a continuous basis in Japan.
It is important to note that not every Japanese citizen is against the decision to have Miyamoto represent Japan in the Miss Universe Pageant. The director of “Hafu: The Mixed Race Experience in Japan,” Megumi Nishikura, has been a vocal supporter of this decision. She has stated repeatedly that it is an opportunity for the Japanese people to rid themselves of dated xenophobic thoughts and expand what it means to be Japanese.
As an Afro-Asian person myself, the story of Miyamoto is one I relate to. When you are bi-racial, people constantly question your allegiance to both of your racial backgrounds. It is irritating that throughout my life I have been asked to conform to stereotypes of my respective races and asked to select between the two. I imagine Miyamoto has had to deal with the same struggles in her life.
The point I want all of Miyamoto’s detractors to understand is the fact that race is not a scientific concept. Race is a human-made identification mechanism that holds no form of scientific merit.
It is a scientific fact that all people have a common ancestor in the form of our Mitochondrial Eve. We all have DNA from this ancient woman; that makes us all the same race. The differences in appearance stem from geographical location, genetic selection and adaptations.
Why is it important that race is a form of human-made identification?
It is important because that means each human gets to identify what they are racially. As an Afro-Asian person, I primarily identify as a black man due to the experiences I’ve had in America. Miyamoto didn’t grow up in America though. Miyamoto grew up in Japan. If she says she is Japanese, she is Japanese. She has all the qualifications to be such. The people who are questioning her ability to represent Japan have no real basis for the apprehension.
I’m sure Miyamoto will do phenomenally in the Miss Universe Pageant, and if the people questioning Miyamoto are half as patriotic as they portray themselves to be, they will cheer her on as she does an exceptional job representing Japan.
Emanuel Griffin is a UF journalism freshman. His column appears on Tuesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 3/24/2015 under the headline “Race: What matters is identity, not categorization at birth”]
