Priyanka Yoshikawa, half-Indian woman, wins Miss World Japan crown

For the second year in a row, a biracial contestant has won the coveted crown in the Miss World Japan beauty pageant.

“Priyanka Yoshikawa’s tearful victory comes a year after Ariana Miyamoto faced an ugly backlash for becoming the first black woman to represent Japan,” TheHindu.com reported on Tuesday.

Both Ms. Miyamoto and Ms. Yoshikawa are considered “haafu,” which means “half” and is sometimes used in a derogatory fashion to describe children who are not “pure” Japanese.

As the BBC reported last year upon Ms. Miyamoto’s victory, “One in 50 new babies born here are now biracial, 20,000 babies a year. Japan is changing.”

“Yes, my dad is Indian, and I’m proud of it. I’m proud that I have Indian in me. But that doesn’t mean I’m not Japanese,” Ms. Yoshikawa told the AFP, going on to describe her struggles with racism when her family moved to Japan after living in the United States and India.

“I know a lot of people who are haafu and suffer,” Ms. Yoshikawa told AFP. “When I came back to Japan, everyone thought I was a germ,” she explained. “Like, if they touched me they would be touching something bad. But I’m thankful because that made me really strong.”

Reaction against Ms. Yoshikawa’s victory isn’t as pronounced as last year, when Ms. Miyamoto, whose father is an African-American U.S. Navy veteran, won the contest, TheHindu.com said.