Japan’s Miss Universe Won’t Wear Kimono Criticized as Obscene

By Masatsugu Horie

July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s candidate for the 2009 Miss Universe pageant will make adjustments to her costume after the black kimono outfit she had chosen was criticized as too revealing.

“Considering the opinions we got from many supporters and other people concerned, we decided to make the hemline of the costume longer,” IBG Japan, which operates the local Miss Universe contest, said on a posting yesterday on its Web site.

Emiri Miyasaka, a 25-year-old from Tokyo, who won Japan’s preliminary contest in May, disclosed her official costume, created by French designer Ines Ligron and Japan’s Yoshiyuki Ogata, on July 22. The pageant organizer and designers received complaints from more than 2,000 people, including one who said the kimono looked like “something a prostitute might wear,” according to a report today in the Sankei newspaper.

Miss Universe will be chosen in Bahamas on August 23.

To contact the reporter on this story: Masatsugu Horie in Osaka at mhorie3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 31, 2009 05:43 EDT