Half Indian elephant whisperer crowned Miss Japan

​Tokyo: A half-Indian beauty queen with an elephant trainer's licence was crowned Miss Japan, striking a fresh blow for racial equality. Priyanka Yoshikawa's tearful victory comes a year after Ariana Miyamoto faced an ugly backlash for becoming the first black woman to represent Japan.

Social media lit up after Miyamoto's trail-blazing triumph as critics complained that Miss Universe Japan should instead have been won by a "pure" Japanese rather than a "haafu" -- the Japanese for "half", a word used to describe mixed race.