Kurara Chibana
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| Kurara Chibana | ||
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 Miss Universe Japan, Kurara Chibana
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| Background information | ||
| Born | March 27, 1982 | |
| Origin | Naha, Okinawa, Japan | |
| Occupation(s) | News Feature Reporter | |
| Website | Kurara Chibana's Miss Universe Contestant Profile | |
Kurara Chibana (知花 くらら Chibana Kurara?) is a Japanese philosophy student and model.
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[edit] Miss Universe Japan 2006
Chibana is known for her participation in Miss Universe 2006 where she represented Japan. She won the best national costume award for her samurai warrior outfit and later became first runner-up for Miss Universe 2006.
Her achievement was remarkable in the light of the fact that Japan has never came this close to winning the crown since 1959, when Akiko Kojima won the first, and so far only Miss Universe crown for the Land of the Rising Sun.
She also managed to outdo the two Japanese women who managed to enter the semi finals in most recent years. They were Miyako Miyazaki, fourth runner-up in 2003 and Mizuho Sakaguchi, 3rd runner-up in 1988.
Her roommate during Miss Universe 2006 was Miss Switzerland, who was chosen as the second runner-up.
[edit] Background
24-year old Kurara Chibana was born on March 27th, 1982, a native of Naha City (the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, which competed at Miss Universe in the late 1960s separately from Japan). She was an educational-philosophy student at Sophia University. She got her BA degree in 2006.
She turned down the job offer from Japanese publishing company in order to compete in Miss Universe Japan pageant, which was held on April 25th, 2006, at Tokyo. Kurara now works as a feature reporter, flying around the world to interview unique people for a leading fashion magazine in Japan. She writes and takes photos of their lifestyles.
[edit] Personality
Kurara is an avid sportswoman who loves tennis and swimming. She is also a certified kickboxing instructor. When it comes to food, 'goya', which is a type of bittermelon is her favourite.
Her favorite song is 'Le Tourbillon' by Jeanne Moreau and favorite movie is Un homme et une femme by Claude Lelouch. According to her, Un homme et une femme is her favorite movie because her favorite actors are Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée.
She can also speak four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Japanese.
[edit] Controversy
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The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Following the rumbles in the blogosphere and among TV viewers, there is little doubt who the fans thought that Kurara Chibana should have won this year's Miss Universe title. Japanese fans are up in arms over the 24-year-old losing out to Miss Puerto Rico, 18-year-old Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza. They believe Kurara Chibana was robbed of the crown because her interpreter missed a key point in her response during the final interview portion of the competition.
The question was, if you had the opportunity to change the history of humanity, what would you change and why? According to a Japanese Internet blogger's translation, Kurara Chibana's response was that if exploitation and violence against women could be eliminated, 'the world would be better'. However, it was alleged that the official Miss Universe interpreter missed out the feminist element of her answer, which apparently cost her the crown. Otherwise, her striking looks and sassy, intelligent personality was a shoo-in, her fans believe.
Miss Indonesia Nadine Chandrawinata later told Indonesian news agency Antara that she never thought the Puerto Rican delegate stood a chance. Judge Maria Celeste Arraras, a journalist with US Spanish-language TV station Telemundo, told Antara: 'In the last 15 minutes of the contest, the jury appeared to be rather in doubt as the audience seemed to support Miss Japan.'
