Miss World Japan Who is Japanese-Indian Seeks to Inspire Racial Acceptance

Priyanka Yoshikawa had won Miss World Japan and the half Japanese, half Indian beauty queen's victory has spurred talks about racial acceptance in the world's third largest economy Reuters reported.

Priyanka Yoshikawa said she hopes that her victory as Miss World Japan will inspire greater acceptance in Japan of people from different ethnic backgrounds like herself.

The 22 year old year old Yoshikawa has a Japanese mother and an Indian father.

She will represent Japan in the next Miss World contest and she will symbolize a lingering undercurrent of debate on race in Japan which is historically a racially homogeneous nation.

"I have a responsibility I have to make things happen because I made a difference, being crowned as a mix," said Yoshikawa to Reuters.

Reuters reported that Miss Yoshikawa joins a wave of prominent "hafu", as many Japanese call those with parents from different ethnic backgrounds, among them Mashu Baker, who won a gold medal in judo at the just-concluded Rio Olympics, and Asuka Cambridge, who anchored the silver medal-winning men's 4x100 meters relay team.

In Japan children of mixed ethnicity are often bullied because they look "different" and are not considered "genuine" Japanese.

According to Reuters, Yoshikawa is the second Japanese of mixed ethnicity to win a beauty contest in as many years. Last year, Ariana Miyamoto, whose father is African-American, was chosen as Japan's representative to the Miss Universe contest, a victory that Yoshikawa said had inspired her to enter for Miss World.

Miyamoto's win generated enormous discussion in social media.

"Miss Japan is 'haafu'. I'm so happy!" wrote one social media commentator. Others said the two mixed-race choices showed Japan was more accepting of ethnic diversity. However, some were puzzled or critical. Miss Japan should "look good in kimono," said one person in a comment on Yahoo. Another said, "She's not bad, but wasn't there a pure Japanese to represent Japan?"

The mixed reactions show that Japan's traditional mindset is starting to evolve, said Yoshikawa, whose height of 1.76 m (5 ft 8 inches), is greater than the average Japanese woman.

"We've been told how Japanese look. How our faces are. We have to be pale, or the Asian look. But things change. It's a small island, but we have a lot of people from other countries and we have a lot more 'hafus' in every single year." Yoshikawa said

International marriages are increasing in Japan, forming 3.3 percent of the total in 2013, government figures show, four times those in 1980. Mixed-race children accounted for 1.9 percent of 2013 births.