Controversial Miss Japan 2024 Gives Up Her Title After Affair With Married Man Is Revealed

The reign of controversial Miss Japan 2024 winner Karolina Shiino has sadly come to an end after just 2 weeks thanks to a sex scandal involving a married muscle-bound doctor and social media influencer.

If you’re not familiar with the original controversy around Karolina Shiino, she was born in Ukraine but moved to Japan when she was very young and has lived there ever since. She speaks Japanese, has one Japanese parent and practices Japanese customs.

However many Japanese people took issue with Karolina winning Miss Japan 2024 because a) she wasn’t born in Japan and b) she’s not 100% Japanese. The matter sparked that classic age-old debate about whether someone not being “born” in a place can ever be considered “from” that place, and whether by selecting a half-Ukrainian woman as their winner, the Miss Japan judges are saying that white women are prettier than Japanese women. Not to mention discussions over racism and other types of isms and phobias based on ethnicity in Japan.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ll have time for time for those debates because Karolina Shiino has decided to hand back her crown of her own accord, and for a much more traditional reason: she was caught shagging a married man.

The Weekly Bonshun magazine revealed that Shiino had been having an affair with doctor and social media influencer Takuma Maeda, who is married. Shiino initially confirmed the relationship but claimed she didn’t know the doctor (below) was married.

In the end though, she admitted it: “I’m very sorry for causing the tremendous trouble and for betraying everyone who has supported me.”

The good news is that Karolina Shiino will not have to engage in seppuku for bringing dishonor to the Miss Japan pageant, but it’s still pretty tragic news all the same. Her groundbreaking victory could have opened doors for other half-Japanese women to win the Miss Japan contests of the future, but instead she’ll forever be remembered as some hench Japanese doctor’s bit on the side.

A damn shame…