Furor erupts over beauty pageant winner's African-American ethnicity

Eriana Miyamoto being crowned Miss Japan 2015 has caused something of a furor in the nation as the 20-year-old beauty's detractors are claiming she is not Japanese.

Miyamoto, who was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture, and has spent the majority of her life in Japan, is indisputably a Japanese citizen. But remarks in the press and on social media have done little to celebrate Japan's move toward embracing diversity.

At the heart of the controversy is the fact that Miyamoto is biracial, born to an African-American father and a Japanese mother. This would barely raise an eyebrow in similar global pageants that recently have seen a host of ethnically diverse belles take the crown.