Photo courtesy of Derrick Brutel via Flickr. Sophia University's beauty pageant now has three parts: self-promotion, speech, and social causes.
By Sophie Glasco ’26
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article mentions eating disorders.
On the website for The University of Tokyo Miss & Mr. Contest 2022, the portraits of 10 contestants stare back at viewers. The five women have porcelain skin, petite frames, round doe eyes and long, dark hair. The five men have clear skin, chiseled jawlines and thick and voluminous hair. Beauty contests such as The University of Tokyo’s Miss & Mr. Contest have been a staple of universities across Japan, run and sponsored by student groups within the schools as gateways for contestants to receive jobs in broadcast media, modeling or acting, based on their appearance that leans into conventional East Asian beauty standards. However, such competitions have recently been criticized for their fixations on these beauty standards alone, removing the participant’s character and personal achievements.
For the female participants, who draw the most attention within the pageants according to The New York Times, these beauty standards are idealized and narrow, amplifying women with extremely thin bodies, pale skin and large, round eyes — leaning into the “kawaii” aesthetic associated with Japanese media, such as anime. Beyond just visual standards, the participants are pushed into rigid and stereotypical gender roles, from women competing in large, white wedding dresses with men in suits, to female contestants baking cupcakes while male contestants lift weights for a grand finale. The University of Tokyo’s website acknowledges the recent controversy caused by Japanese beauty pageants, writing, “Also, recently, Miss and Mr. contests have been criticized from the viewpoint of lookism and gender equality. However, I think that candidates can convey their various charms to many people by transmitting their inner thoughts and activities without being constrained by their appearance or gender.”
Aligning with The University of Tokyo’s statement, universities are attempting to salvage these pageants by shifting the focus to personal characteristics. Sophia University in Tokyo is noted as one of the first universities to make this shift, rebranding their Miss and Mr. contests in 2020 to the new “Sophian’s Contest.” With the criteria for the winner shifted to three pillars of self-promotion, speech and social contribution, Sophia University’s 2020 finalists, consisting of four women and two men, advocated social causes such as marine pollution and food waste, aligning with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, which, according to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals website, “Address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.” Along with sustainability, contestants are now situated to make commentary on other social issues, such as a 2021 finalist’s decision to not show her face at all, critiquing the beauty standards of these pageants. This year’s winner, Mihane Fujiwara, noted in her interview on the contest’s website that she was interested in the contest’s philosophy change, which now creates an environment for social change. She emphasized her volunteer work in rural Cambodia for her social cause.
However, critics still think that the pageant’s roots in beauty will forever be prevalent, even with the rebranding of contests such as that of Sophia University. In an article from The Japan News, Misaki Ito, a senior at Ochanomizu University, a women’s university in Tokyo, criticized the pageants. “People may ultimately vote based on appearance. Judging their social activities is just a way to hide that truth,” Ito said. Speaking on if the benefits of marketing the contestants into modeling and broadcasting are worth the controversies of the pageants, Tanisha Liang ’26 said, “I think that by contracting these contestants into a modeling agency and broadcasting service furthers this idea that you have to look a certain way to make it in that realm, which is not healthy for their audience or the contestants. Not only does it have societal implications, but the stigma of having to maintain that image 24/7 [can] lead to eating disorders and mental health issues within the models and contestants.” Sky Yamagiwa ’26, who grew up in Japan, furthered this stance, and said, “[F]rom my experience living in Japan, toxic diet culture is praised and rewarded with compliments regularly. Conversations about the negative mental and physical health effects, along with other forms of harassment in the modeling industry are rarely spoken of, especially among younger women.” The future of these pageants will likely have to navigate between the lingering beauty focused history and modernizations, such as Sophia University’s, seeking to highlight personal character and social goals.“Contests like these only stay alive if the audience likes what they see,” Liang said. The sentiment remains the same with Yamagiwa, who added, “I feel that as long as it stays a ‘beauty’ pageant, where the main purpose is to please an audience, unless there is a shift in the purpose of the pageants, the issue will not be resolved.”