Racial Progress in Japan is Slow. But There is Progress.

[Bonobo]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/first-multiracial-miss-universe-japan-has-been-crowned-n325131

The First Multiracial Miss Universe Japan Has Been Crowned



The stunning Miss Nagasaki, Ariana Miyamoto, is the first multiracial contestant ever to be crowned Miss Universe Japan and will represent Japan in the 2015 Miss Universe pageant.

Born in Japan to a Japanese mother and African American father, Miyamoto is a Japanese citizen, grew up in Japan, and identifies as Japanese. Described in local media as a "saishoku kenbi," a woman blessed with both intelligence and beauty, she holds a 5th degree mastery of Japanese calligraphy.

But reaction to her win has been both positive and negative, with some people questioning whether a multiracial person can truly represent Japan. According to local media, even she was initially a little wary about entering the pageant because she was "hāfu," the Japanese word used to refer to multiracial or multi-ethnic half-Japanese people.

"The selection of Ariana Miyamoto as this year's Miss Universe Japan is a huge step forward in expanding the definition of what it means to be Japanese," filmmaker and co-director of the film "Hafu," Megumi Nishikura told NBC News, "The controversy that has erupted over her selection is a great opportunity for us Japanese to examine how far we have come from our self-perpetuated myth of homogeneity while at the same time it shows us how much further we have to go."

[daleanime]

1. ........

Looking forward to responses.

[MADem]

2. Haven't advances in DNA mapping proven to Japan that they're not "all that" but they're a bit of

this, and a bit of that....? You'd think they'd start to mellow out.

I will say, they could get racialicious if you weren't accompanied by the "right" person at some venues.

https://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/yayoi-era-yields-up-rice/who-were-the-yayoi-people/making-sense-of-dna-data-and-origins-of-the-japanese/

Making sense of DNA data and the origins of the Japanese
The DNA sequencing picture that emerges today shows the central Honshu people of Japan to be genetically just a little closer to Sino-Tibetan and Han Chinese (from the Jiangsu region who were possibly rice-farming immigrants during the Yayoi era) evidenced by the specific genetic Y markers found in Japanese today (ie O3a5, O3a and O1), in their mix than to modern-day Koreans whose ancestors contributed significantly to the Japanese gene pool probably during Koguryo and Paekche migrations into Japan of the Kofun era to Asuka eras.

One surprising point that emerges from a look at both mtDNA and Y Haplogroups charts, is that the Koreans show an even closer genetic affinity to Okinawans (and therefore to the Jomon stock) than mainland Honshu Japanese do themselves…comprising 17.4% of their DNA sequence compared to the Japanese 16.1% of their DNA sequence....

[Bonobo]

3. I think this is, in fact, evidence that they are starting to "mellow out". nt

[MADem]

9. LONG time coming! Necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps?

The population isn't growing, so they will probably have to become more accepting of diversity....or build more robots!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/01/374382369/japans-population-declined-in-2014-as-births-fell-to-a-new-low

...The figures released by the country's health ministry showed that the estimated number of people who died in 2014 was 1,269,000, about 1,000 above the previous year. The number of births was 1,001,000, down about 29,000 from 2013. The total population declined by a record 268,000.

The Kyodo news service adds that the number of births could slide below 1 million when new numbers are released in June.

Agence France-Presse adds that the number of births was a new low for the fourth straight year....Those 65 and over are expected to make up nearly 40 percent of the population in 2060. That could mean tough economic times for the world's No. 3 economy...

[ND-Dem]

4. Doesnt make sense to me (not arguing, just saying it seems strange). Why would Koreans

have more "Okinawan" DNA than Japanese, being that Okinawa is south of Japan and north of Taiwan, in a chain of islands, and Korea is on the Chinese mainland, to the north & west of Japan?

I feel like some leaps are being made here...

[Bonobo]

5. People of Ryukyu (Okinawa) traveled a lot.

That could explain it.

[ND-Dem]

6. well, so did everyone at one time or another. that's how human beings took over the world.

but did they travel from the tip of korea toward Taiwan, skipping japan? why should that be?

just saying, it seems weird.

[Bonobo]

7. Island people use boats more than mainland people. They DO travel on the seas more.

They trade more.

I live on an island. Things wash up. The tide brings things. Everyone has boats. It's the way of life.

If you live in mountains, you go to the mountains. If you live on an island, you go to the seas.

[ND-Dem]

10. why would island people travel less to Japan (which is closer) than korea? my sense was

that they likely started as non-island people, on the Chinese mainland, and went island-hopping to Okinawa. That's how I'd read the DNA.

Not sure what the currents do, but my guess would be they don't run North.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Could prevailing currents be a factor? nt

[ND-Dem]

12. If the currents ran from Taiwan to Korea maybe. Do you know how they run? (I don't)

Last edited Wed Mar 18, 2015, 11:52 AM - Edit history (1)

[awoke_in_2003]

13. No, I may have to look it up...

I have to agree it is odd that they made it to Korea first.

[MADem]

8. I used to travel between Okinawa and Korea a lot, and the physical resemblances

are apparent, particularly as regards facial features and body type. Okinawans with roots on the island going way back are stockier than mainlanders, by and large and they do look more Korean than mainlander.

The DNA doesn't lie...!

Also, they consider themselves Okinawan (Ryukyuan) first, Japanese second, with historical justification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_people

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. For the same reason that the Welsh have more in common genetically with Basques than other Britons?

Despite the Basques being Iberian and Wales being off in the west of the island of Great Britain. The odds are pretty good that the Okinawans and Koreans came from the same ancestral population a very long time ago and that whoever came to Japan later from elsewhere (China, Mongolia, Siberia, Austronesia and Micronesia, wherever) ended up mingling their DNA with the population of Honshu, Hokkaido, etc (but not Okinawa) resulting in a distinctive "Japanese" population that's different from the population on Okinawa.