The winner of this year’s Miss Japan Grand Prix is Miyata Marino, a 17-year-old high school student and the first of someone in her age group to earn the award in the past ten years(the previous one was Komatsuda Ari in 1999).

The beauty queen discussed her career plans to become a business journalist along with an announcement she made to her audience during the awards ceremony: “I love the anime Macross Frontier. I think anime is a part of Japan’s culture.”

Miss Miyata’s inspiration to enter the Grand Prix came from the 1992 winner Eriane Sayaka.

According to her mother, her participation in the contest was to help boost her confidence: “I want to be proud of my title as Miss Japan and try my best.”

When asked about whether or not she had a boyfriend she bashfully replied: “Not currently. If I go to college I’ll think about it.”

It seems as though anime fans are becoming more open nowadays in Japanese society though some of them express their interests more extremely then others.

Via Mainichi.

More pics of Miss Miyata and her competitors can be found here.