Hiroko Mima

Hiroko Mima (美馬 寛子, Mima Hiroko, born December 5, 1986, Tokushima Prefecture) is a fashion model, athlete, beauty queen,and Miss Universe Japan 2008.

Biography

Mima currently attends Nihon University and her major is physical education. Mima suffers from a bone marrow disease that left the right side of her body incapacitated for three months at 13 years old and a nerve disease Guillain-Barré syndrome in junior high school.^[1] Since then Mima has returned to sports and competed seven times at the Japan National Track and Field Competition. She competes on the track and field team with a high jump of 1.65 m., approaching her own height of 1.73 m.^[2] Shortly after losing her grandmother, who died when she slipped on the bathroom floor, Mima lost her father in a car accident before winning Miss Universe Japan 2008.

Miss Universe Japan

Hiroko Mima, a 21 year old physical education student from Tokushima in Western Japan, was crowned Miss Universe Japan 2008 on April 3, beating out 9 other finalists and a total of about 4000 entrants. Staged at the Tokyo International Forum, the final competition featured a "Fashion Island" performance. The 9 other contestants that competed against Hiroko Mima were: Kana Anan, Sayo Yamaguchi, Yukari Honna, Moe Aoki, Yuri Horita, Rui Watanabe, Yoshimi Sato, Chie Hirai, and Azusa Nishigaki.

Miss Universe 2008

She was the official representative for Japan at the Miss Universe 2008 pageant which took place in Nha Trang, Vietnam on July 14, 2008. She made the first cut by advancing to the top 15 on the finals competing in the swimsuit round, and was ultimately placed in the 14th position being the highest place Asian delegant to make the cut.

Hiroko Mima was trained for the pageant by her national pageant director Ines Ligron, who also took Korea's candidate Sun Lee under her wing. Mima continued Japan's stake in the Miss Universe pageant by placing in the semifinal for a consecutive third time, despite not being favoured by numerous pageant sites as a potential semifinalist.^[3][4][5] Hiroko was the first contestant in the history of Miss Universe to wear a purse during the evening gown portion of the presentation show. In 2009, Mima placed in Globalbeauties.com top 32 Grand Slam Beauties.

Post-Miss Universe

Hiroko Mima is now working as a professional model.^[6] Mima has recently trained and prepared Emiri Miyasaka for Miss Universe 2009.

See also

• Sun Lee
• Kurara Chibana
• Riyo Mori
• Emiri Miyasaka

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)